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Faculty & Research

There is an underlying understanding that research is an important and integral aspect of a faculty member's overall professional effort. Research is also seen as an important activity in both graduate and undergraduate park and recreation education. As part of the educational mission of the Department, faculty and students are encouraged to expand their participation in research activities. Faculty within the Department are available to meet with students to assess their involvement (actual/potential) in research, to provide educational and experiential activities to improve their research skills, and to provide advice and consultation in the areas of research design, data analysis, and manuscript preparation.
If you are interested in conducting research, please click here to see a list of our faculty and their particular research areas of expertise.

 

IU Outdoor Pool: A Platform for Incidental Public Health

Bill Ramos, Recreation, Park, and Tourism Studies, is working in collaboration with Dr. Susan Middlestadt from Applied Health Sciences. They are conducting a study which looks into the power of leisure services to create spaces that are inviting and engaging that then result in incidental opportunities for public health behaviors to talk place. If you would like more information you can contact the Bill Ramos at wramos@indiana.edu or 812-856-7161. If you were a patron of the IU Outdoor Pool and would like to participate in the study mentioned, please contact us with your email to receive the survey.

William D. Ramos
Director, Aquatics Institutes

Integrating Natural Resources Protection with Recreation and Tourism Needs

Dr. Charles Chancellor has teamed up with Dr. James Farmer (Earlham College) and RPTS graduate students Ya-Ling Chen and Erin Schmiesing to continue projects directed at integrating natural resource protection with recreation and tourism needs. Pristine landscapes are considered a necessity for many tourism destinations and recreation settings. Land trusts have proven to be an efficient, effective, and relatively inexpensive method of protecting privately held land for recreation and tourism destinations, while tourism entities have the need, resources (financial, ability to network and market) and are an economic justification for protecting land important to a local tourism product. Three exploratory studies are currently underway which seek to better understand: 1) the motivations, benefits, constraints, and problems associated with land trust - tourism entity collaboration efforts; and 2) the role that recreation plays in an individual's relationship to land conservation.

Additionally, Drs. Chancellor and Farmer are collaborating on multiple projects which investigate the facilitators and constraints of participation in local food systems (farmers' markets, community supported agriculture, etc.).  Local foods are a vital element in the support of public health initiatives, such as food security, environmental health, and the promotion of healthy-whole foods to fight obesity.  Chancellor and Farmer's preliminary work indicates that recreation opportunities and leisure experiences may contribute to increased participation in farmers' markets, with agency directed farmers' markets, such as municipal park and recreation departments, playing an integral role for the increase of attendance and the consumption of locally raised sustainable foods. Their local foods research can be found in the most recent issue of the Journal of Park and Recreation Administration.

• Farmer, J., Chancellor, C., Gooding, A., Shubowitz, D., & Bryant, A. (2011). Farmers’ markets and the contribution of recreation to local food system participation. Journal of Park and Recreation Administration, 29(3), 11-23.

Charles Chancellor, PhD
Assistant Professor
Coordinator, Tourism Management Major 

War Narratives: War Stories, PTSD Effects, and Therapeutic Fly-Fishing

Dr. Rasul Mowatt and Jessie Bennett, RPTS doctoral student, recently completed the following study which has now accepted to an upcoming issue in the Therapeutic Recreation Journal:

War Narratives: War Stories, PTSD Effects, and Therapeutic Fly-Fishing
Working within a framework of narratology (narrative theory), this study is a gathering and analysis of 67 letters of veterans as they concluded their participation in a therapeutic fly-fishing program in Dutch John, UT along the Green River.  The program worked with female and male veterans with confirmed diagnoses of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder that served overseas in each branch of the Armed Forces (except the Coast Guard) during Operation New Dawn, Operation Iraqi Freedom, Operation Enduring Freedom, Operation Desert Storm, Operation Desert Shield, and Vietnam.  The collected narratives were analyzed based on a three-part process of reading: Explication; Explanation; and, Exploration.  This analysis approach presented a uniquely constructed perspective of veterans as they participated in treatment.  The study systematically analyzed the stories to present a narrative and set of themes that would inform and guide future empirical studies on the realities of veterans, program experiences, and perspective on treatment.

Rasul A. Mowatt
Assistant Professor, Leadership
Coordinator, Parks and Recreation

 

Healthy Communities Surveillance and Management Project

iIndiana University- Bloomington, along with Indiana Parks and Recreation Association, Bloomington Parks and Recreation Department, GreenPlay, and Design Concepts, have been working together to create an "alpha" project to develop and test the Healthy Communities Surveillance and Management Toolkit. The project targets the community aspects that influence obesity and active living. This initial project has been successful and the methods are now being integrated into an introductory workbook and training toolkit to be applied to "beta" site communities for additional refinement and implementation in the future.

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