Research Plan

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Research Philosophy

As an interdisciplinary scholar, Kelsey aims to contribute to the theory and practice of tourism and recreation academically and within the communities within in which she undertakes research. Kelsey is a qualitative and mixed methods researcher with a social constructivist perspective, strongly influenced by the anthropological study of tourism, the philosophy of recreation and leisure, evidence-based therapeutic recreation (founded in a strengths-based approach) and social justice issues emerging within the recreation and tourism industries. Her research focuses on narratives produced by and for tourists / recreationists, the transmission of inter-cultural knowledge and sustainability practices through tourism and recreation, host and guest interactions within tourism, the phenomenological experience of tourism and recreation, and rural community tourism development. Her research also extends to niche areas of outdoor recreation, therapeutic recreation, and wellness, including nature-based therapeutic recreation, and self-care practices for both in-service therapeutic recreation students and new therapeutic recreation practitioners (including but not limited to CTRS, or Certified Therapeutic Recreation Specialists).
 

Current Research

Kelsey's doctoral dissertation examined the culture of World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms (WWOOF) participation in New Zealand, including the experience and meaning of participation across all program levels (organization, host and guest). Her research draws on the fields of tourism, anthropology, and geography, specifically debates around authenticity and tourism imaginaries, reciprocity and exchange, and sustainable food production and consumption. Using phenomenology-based ethnographic methods, data was collected during seven months of immersive fieldwork, using participant observation, field notes, key informant interviews, and including organizational documents, videos and photographs.

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This research addresses a gap in the literature on, and intersections between, agriculture and volunteer tourism. Specific to agricultural tourism, Kelsey's research is a holistic investigation into the meanings attributed to participation in agricultural tourism from supply, demand, and organizational perspectives. Her research contributes to a broader understanding of volunteer tourism, outside the development and conservation sphere, by (re)defining the boundaries of volunteer tourism, and exploring the nature of host-guest relationships. Kelsey's dissertation makes an original contribution to the growing body of research on WWOOFing by exploring the conflicts that arise from converging and diverging host and guest values, and the role of food in the overarching program. She was an invited co-author on a paper which explored WWOOFing in Hawai’i, and plans to transform her dissertation into five publications, and an auto-ethnography that explores the role of food in connecting hosts and guest through tourism.

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Kelsey's work in rural tourism development, and multi-use trails continues through several collaborations with colleagues across Canada. This includes a project with Kirsten Spence (Quercwood Consulting - Dorion, ON) and Jane McColluch (nee Murphy - Terminus Consulting) which explores trail-based recreation and tourism governance models through the lens of social enterprise. You can learn more about this ongoing work here. 

Kelsey is also collaborating on a joint community-based research initiative and Integrated Curriculum Design project with her colleague Dr. Karla Boluk at the University of Waterloo and members of the Ontario Trails Council. Through this project 1st and 4th year tourism students in the Department of Recreation and Leisure Studies will collaborate to complete a community-based research project for an Ontario Trails Organization, gaining valuable hands-on and employment ready experience while providing meaningful insights to their Ontario Trails Community Partner Organization. Each unique project was developed in consultation with the sponsoring Ontario Trails Community Partner Organization; for the Winter 2021 semester, students will be working in groups to address eight (8) unique community research projects in the areas of: trail destination development and marketing, effective communication with trail users, trail user conflict prevention and management, and COVID-19 response planning.

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Recently Completed Research

 

In May 2019, Kelsey completed a large-scale, multi-researcher, evaluation project, in response to an RfP issued by Sport Manitoba. This research project, spearheaded by Dr. Joannie Halas, evaluated the effectiveness of the Bilateral Funding program’s implementation in Manitoba, and seeks to improve access to sport programs for urban, rural and remote indigenous communities. Through her work on this project, Kelsey trained and supervised eight Transcription Assistants and one Research Assistant, in addition to completing stakeholder interviews and the qualitative analysis of said interviews. I also assisted with the preparation of interim reports to Sport Manitoba. The research team, including Kelsey, also prepared a final report and community presentation for Sport Manitoba, and its associated stakeholders. 

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Future Research

Kelsey plans to continue to conduct research on culture, identity, food,
and tourism, through an exploration of how rural and remote communities
re-create their cultural identity through leisure experiences (commercial
recreation and tourism, festivals, and events). Through participant observation,
discourse analysis and interviews, this research will explore the facets of
cultural identity replication inherent in participation in the
Up Helly Aa Fire Festival (Lerwick, Shetland Islands, Scotland),
Islendingadagurinn – the Icelandic Festival of Manitoba (Gimli, Canada)
and the Santa Lucia Pageant (Toronto, Canada), including the symbolic
meanings attributed to participation and the role of ethnic and regional foods
in these events. To this end, Kelsey visited the Shetland Islands
(from February 24 to March 11, 2019) to undertake several community
rapport-building activities, and to meet with the Shetland Archivist and
Shetland Archaeologist as well as collaborators at the
University of the Highlands and Islands.

Kelsey plans to branch into research on local food culture and sustainable cafés as
commercial tourism development avenues in rural and remote areas of Canada, such
as Fogo Island (Newfoundland and Labrador). She intends to continue ongoing international
collaborative work on battlefield tourism interpretation with colleagues from the United States,
Canada and Australia.