Plenary Session

The theme of this year’s TALS conference is Decentering Leisure - a theme that we hope will encourage alternative or reimagined approaches to the study of leisure, in that leisure is not considered as a unified field of study, an agreed upon ideal or concept, or a “bounded category of practice and experience” (Rojeck, 1995, p. 146). As such, this year’s conference will celebrate research that pushes boundaries toward new ways of knowing and understanding leisure so that “we come to see what it is that is important about leisure in the contemporary world” (Blackshaw, 2017, p. 240). 

The Plenary consists of two of our most established scholars in the field, Drs. Heather Gibson and Myron Floyd, who will revisit their most successful or significant publications, ideas, works, and/or contributions to the field and share how they should or could be reimagined, specifically in light of the conference theme. 

Drs. Callie Schulz and Brian Kumm-Schaley will facilitate and moderate the discussion with additional questions and prompts.

Whitney Plantation Tour

The Department of Parks, Recreation and Tourism Management in the College of Natural Resources at North Carolina State University, transportation to and from the Whitney Plantation, a boxed lunch, and entry fees will be covered. The Whitney Plantation (https://whitneyplantation.org/) is a non-profit museum dedicated to the history of slavery.

Participants will leave the conference center 11:00am and will return by 4pm. The tour is set to start at 12:15pm and run until 2:15pm. The drive is approximately 1 hour from the Conference Center. Transportation, entry fee, and a boxed lunch will be provided to participants.

An RSVP for this experience is required by Friday December 15th. Space is limited to the first 50 to RSVP.

Please RSVP here: Closed.