Welcome to Salt Lake City!!

We are excited to welcome The Academy of Leisure Sciences to Salt Lake City, also known as “The City of Saints” or the “Crossroads of the West”. While you can certainly have your presentation revolve around this theme, we are not requiring a theme this year and presenters will not be required to locate their work around a theme this year, and are encouraged to submit abstracts with diverse foci (e.g., recreational therapy, youth development, sport, tourism, outdoor pursuits, sustainability, curricula, pedagogy, etc.) as a means of demonstrating our commitment and excitement for the our field, research, and education/pedagogy. We would also encourage educators, especially from our smaller institutions, with a strong pedagogy focus to consider submissions related to teaching and instruction as many of our attendees are graduate students and early career instructors and could benefit from pedagogy-focused educators in our field. You may submit abstracts here.

Bannon Lecture and Plenary Sessions Theme

Governments around the world, especially in the US and Europe, have taken steps to significantly reduce funding for public goods that make leisure possible for people who otherwise would not be able to afford it:

• Public libraries closing or reducing hours

• Municipal swimming pools and recreation centers shutting down or being privatized

• Arts councils cutting funding  

• Park maintenance deferment

• Community sports facilities transferred to private operators or closed

• Youth services and after-school programs defunded

The result is that leisure becomes tiered in that those who can afford private space, subscription services, paid experiences, and travel get more and higher "quality" leisure. Those who relied on public supports and spaces get less. This is a measurable shift in how leisure is distributed across society.

Our speakers details and names are forthcoming.