International Relations November 6, 2020 - Racial Inequalities Across the World

Dan Henhawk, PhD is Kanien’kehá:ka (Mohawk) person from the Six Nations of the Grand River community in southern Ontario. He is currently an Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Kinesiology and Recreation Management at the University of Manitoba. His research interests revolve around the tensions between Western conceptualizations, and practices, of leisure and Indigenous ways of knowing and being. His graduate work involved an auto-ethnographic inquiry to understand the ways in which sport and colonialism intersected and affected his personal life. This work also involved narrative inquiry as he looked to understand the stories and narratives of his family, friends and colleagues who were also immersed in the colonized and colonizing narratives that have permeated the context of sport in the community of Six Nations. Dr. Henhawk’s current research program is focussed on continuing to explore the intersections of leisure and Indigenous ways of knowing and being, specifically within the area of Indigenous land-based practices and education. Broadly, his research questions the intersections of leisure and float:left; Indigenous movements to decolonize and cultural resurgence.

Monika Stodolska, PhD is a Professor in the Department of Recreation, Sport and Tourism, University of Illinois. She received her Ph.D. in Earth and Atmospheric Sciences from the University of Alberta, Canada. Her research focuses on issues of cultural change, quality of life, and their relationship to leisure behavior of ethnic and racial minorities. She explores subjects such as the adaptation processes among minority groups, recreation behavior of minority populations in natural environments, physical activity among minority groups, as well as constraints on leisure. Dr. Stodolska’s research has been funded by the USDA Forest Service, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and National Recreation and Park Association. She has co-edited books on Race, Ethnicity and Leisure with Drs. Shinew, Floyd and Walker and Leisure Matters: The State and Future of Leisure Studies with Drs. Walker and Scott. Her research has also been published in Journal of Leisure Research, Leisure Sciences, Leisure/Loisir, Annals of Behavioral Medicine, Social Science Quarterly, Journal of Immigrant and Refugee Studies and other outlets.

Karl Spracklen, PhD is a Professor of Sociology of Leisure and Culture at Leeds Beckett University (UK), where he is also the Director of Research for Social Work and Social Policy. He is the former editor and co-founder of the journal Metal Music Studies, and is currently the editor of International Journal of the Sociology of Leisure. He has researched and written extensively on leisure, music, identity and belonging, and has over a hundred books, papers and book chapters. His latest book is Metal Music and the Re-imagining of Masculinity, Place, Race and Nation, published by Emerald in 2020. He has been a reviewer for dozens of journals and guest edited nine special issues.

Harrison Pinckney, PhD is an Assistant Professor of Parks, Recreation, and Tourism Management at Clemson University. For the past ten years, he has focused his research on the factors that contribute to the positive development of black youth. To this end, he has focused on the role of community institutions such recreation centers and faith-based organizations in providing programs and experiences that promote the positive racial identity of black youth. He has led national studies examining the rites of passage programs and recently concluded a study exploring the impact of the movie Black Panther on black youths’ perception of self. Harrison is currently directing an NSF funded project that will seek to understand how community resources can be leveraged to encourage black youth to become scientists. Harrison believes the right opportunities combined with the assets black youth possess can position them to thrive in adulthood.

Pinckney received his B.S. and M.S. in Recreation, Parks, and Tourism Sciences from the University of Florida and earned his PhD in Recreation, Parks, and Tourism Sciences with a certificate in Prevention Science from Texas A&M.

Aarti Ratna, PhD is an Associate Professor of Sociology at Solent University, from the U.K. Her work focuses upon anti-racist and transnational feminist readings of sport, leisure, and popular culture.

Marie Young, PhD is a staff member of the Department of Sport Recreation and Exercise Science, University of the Western Cape, and serve as a member of the Board of Directors for the World Leisure Organisation. She majored with recreation and industrial psychology resulting in a career as a sport and recreation officer at the City of Johannesburg, the local authority in South Africa. She developed a passion for working with youth and decided to share her knowledge and expertise with the youth by becoming an academic. She obtained her Doctorate degree in 2014 with a focus on therapeutic recreation in the African context. She lectures on the undergraduate and postgraduate level and has a research interest in community recreation, campus recreation and therapeutic recreation as a means to promote health, youth development and changing environments making communities more liveable for ALL (inclusive recreation participation). The diversity of the field of sport and recreation leads to her involvement in various interdepartmental and inter-institutional projects and student supervision locally, nationally and internationally. She presented papers at conferences and submitted collaborative grant applications that have been successful. She further provides training to recreational workers in the City of Cape Town as part of a collaborating agreement with the four institutions in the Western Cape and the City for the development of community-based recreational programs.