Felice Yuen, PhD

Felice Yuen’s research focuses on leisure and its impact on the quality of life of individuals and the communities in which they live. More specifically, she is interested in leisure as a context for individual and community healing. Recent research projects include an SSHRC funded partnership development grant, which explores the healing and rehabilitation of Indigenous women in provincial prison. Her research, predominantly arts-based and community-based, has been done in collaboration with community-based organizations such as la Société de Elizabeth Fry du Québec (an organization supporting women who have experience with the criminal justice system) and Li-ber-T House (a women’s transition house).

Please visit collective-healing.net for information regarding Indigenous women in Quebec’s provincial prison.

Education

PhD Recreation and Leisure Studies, University of Waterloo
M.A. Recreation and Leisure Studies, University of Waterloo
B.A. Recreation Administration, University of Alberta

Courses

AHSC 385 Social Psychology of Leisure
AHSC 431 Leisure Sciences Seminar
AHSC 442 Community Development and Leisure
AHSC 422 Youth and Leisure

Selected Publications

Tam, R., & Yuen, F. (2025).Decolonizing research: Response art as an arts-based analysis research tool. The Arts in Psychotherapy, 10.1016/j.aip.2025.102335

Yuen, F., & Tam, R., (2025). Indigenous Women in the Correctional System: Insights from Community Support Workers. Advancing Corrections, special issue What is working with women: Correctional practice in the post Bangkok Rules Era, 18(1), 60-80.

Yuen F., Weisgarber, B., & Gabriel, W. (2024). Research ethics = you me “all our relations”, Leisure/Loisir, special issue Leisure and (Anti-)Racism: Towards a Critical Consciousness of Race, Racism, and Racialisation in so-called Canada, 48(2), 259-279.https://doi.org/10.1080/14927713.2024.2318203

Yuen ,F., & Reilly, R., & Sjollema, S. (2024). Leisure and trauma-informed practice. Leisure Studies 43(3), 491-510. https://doi.org/10.1080/02614367.2023.2228508

Yuen, F., & Hebblethwaite, S. (2024). Human connections:intergenerational engagement, intentionality, and third places. Leisure/Loisir, 48(4),565-585. https://doi.org/10.1080/14927713.2023.2224360

Henhawk, D., Yuen, F., & Barrick, S. (2023). Engaging struggle: The deconstruction of the academy in leisurestudies. Leisure/Loisir, 47(1), 1-6. https://doi.org/10.1080/14927713.2022.2152364

Yuen, F. (2021). "If we're lost, we are lost together":Leisure and relationality. Leisure Sciences: Special issue on Leisurein the time of coronavirus, 43(1-2), 90-96. https://doi.org/10.1080/01490400.2020.1773988

Yuen, F. (2016).Collage: A method of analysis and representation. Journal of LeisureResearch, 48(4), 338-346. https://doi.org/10.18666/JLR-2016-V48-I4-6922

Book

Pedlar, A., Arai, S., Yuen, F.,& Fortune, D. (2018). Community re-entry: Uncertain futures forwomen leaving prison. Routledge.

Recent conference presentations

Yuen,  F., & Butler, B. (2025, July8-10). “I’m Learning How to Love Myself”: Indigenous Programming in Women’s Prison. Leisure Studies Association Annual Conference, York, United Kingdom.

Yuen, F., Lashua, B., Spracklen, K., Johnson, C. W., Jeffrey, A., Morales, J.B.*, Mowatt, R.,  Thorpe, H., Ugolotti, N. M., & Pereira, A. P. C. (2025, July 8-10). Starting Lines, Turning Points, and Disputational Moments in the Sociology of Leisure, Panel discussion). Leisure Studies Association Annual Conference, York, United Kingdom.

Barrick, S., Yuen, F., & Henhawk, D. (2023, May 23-26). Engaging struggle: The deconstruction of the academy of leisure studies, Round Table Discussion. The 17th Canadian Congress on Leisure Research Conference, Ottawa, Ontario,  Canada.

Tam, R., & Yuen, F. (2023, May 23-26). Decolonizing research: Arts-based analysis for research with communities experiencing marginalization and oppression. The17th Canadian Congress on Leisure Research Conference, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.