Scholarship on Race and Ethnicity: Assessing Contributions to Leisure Theory and Practice

Increasing racial and ethnic diversity along with a recent surge in racial conflict highlight the need for leisure studies to reflect on its capacity to provide scientific understanding and inform practice related to these issues. As these events unfold, questions emerge about how such trends will shape leisure experiences and opportunities. There are also questions about how we prepare future professionals to manage leisure services in an increasingly multiracial and multiethnic society. These and related issues were addressed in the Butler Lecture at 2016 National Recreation and Park Association Research Symposium. Based on the lecture, this paper provides an assessment of the field’s positioning to provide theoretical perspective on contemporary challenges pertaining to race and ethnicity and explores how the academy can address racial disparities in leisure contexts and within the academy itself.