Nature supports human health and wellbeing in numerous ways, including through outdoor recreation experiences. Troublingly, access to parks, public greenspace, and other natural recreation environments is often constrained for Black Americans and other communities of color. This means that the benefits of contact with nature are not fully realized by all people.
In the lecture, Floyd draws attention to the different ways Black Americans have been represented in the research literature on race and outdoor leisure. He highlighted how dominant narratives influence the way that research questions and policy responses are framed. He also presented counter narratives that disrupt and challenge whiteness in outdoor leisure settings. These counter narratives invite timely discussions around our conceptualizations of nature and outdoor leisure experiences with implications for public lands management and human health and wellbeing.
The question-and-answer session was moderated by Craig J. Newschaffer, Raymond E. and Erin Stuart Schultz Dean of the College of Health and Human Development, host of the series.
About the Speaker
Dean Myron Floyd is widely recognized as a leading scholar focused on understanding race and ethnic patterns in outdoor recreation behavior. His most recent research examines how public parks and green spaces and other features of the built environment contribute to physical activity in low-income communities of color. He is co-author of "Race, Ethnicity, and Leisure: Perspectives on Research, Theory and Practice from Human Kinetics." He is the author of 95 peer-reviewed journal articles, 22 peer-reviewed monographs and proceedings papers, 18 book chapters, and more than 100 presentation papers and abstracts.
In 2008, Floyd was awarded the Theodore and Franklin Roosevelt Award, the highest award for research excellence from the National Recreation and Park Association. He is an elected fellow of the Academy of Leisure Sciences and the American Academy of Park and Recreation Administration.