Pioneer Karla A. Henderson receives 1993 Roosevelt Award

Parks & Recreation, June, 1994 by H. Douglas Sessoms, Peter A. Witt, M. Deborah Bialeschki

Karla A. Henderson, Professor, Curriculum in Leisure Studies and Recreation Administration, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, is the 1993 recipient of the Theodore and Franklin Roosevelt Award for excellence in recreation and parks research, presented at the annual Congress of the National Recreation and Park Association. What's news is not that Dr. Henderson received this award but the many innovative activities and projects she implemented that brought her into the spotlight.

Dr. Henderson is the leading figure in promoting and understanding women and leisure and has contributed significantly to our knowledge through her research in this area. Through her numerous contributions to our research journals and publication of A Leisure of One's Own: A Feminist Perspective on Women's Leisure (1989), a collaborative effort with three other colleagues, she has helped set the agenda for future research on gender and leisure.

Additionally, she has pioneered the application of the technique of oral history to enhance our understanding of the leisure attitudes, interests, and behaviors of older women, particularly those residing in rural environments.

Both chronicling and generating research, Dr. Henderson--as chairman of national research efforts (1982-1986) and editor of Camping's research column (1986-1990)--has influenced the way the profession thinks through her reporting of studies in camping. She has been co-chair of the Society of Parks and Educators' Leisure Research Symposium (1986-1988) and co-editor of Park and Recreation's Research Update column 1990-present). Furthermore, writing alone or in collaboration with colleagues, she has moved the profession forward in

its understanding of the needs of diverse populations and the importance of volunteerism.

Dr. Henderson has worldwide influence. In the past 10 years, she has published research articles on women and leisure in almost every major leisure research journal and has served as an associate editor for most of these publications. She has given papers in England, Canada, India, and Australia, addressing such issues as the meaning of leisure for women; the constraints which shape, influence, or deny leisure experiences; the role leisure plays in empowerment for women; and the ethics of care. She has investigated the relationship between barriers to recreation and gender role assumption and behaviors; the motivation and perceptions of volunteerism as a leisure activity; ecofeminism; and the management and impact of camping experiences. She won the 1992 Golden Quill Award for research on "Facility Flow with the Camping Experience."

Through her research and writing, Dr. Henderson also has challenged the profession's perspective and conceptualization of leisure in its delivery of leisure services to women. As a result, both the Journal of Leisure Research and the World Leisure and Recreation Association Journal invited her to serve as guest editor on special issues relating to women and leisure. More recently, she was invited by the editors of the Oxford Companion to Women's Writing in the United States to contribute a chapter on women and leisure.

While she is a great leader, Dr. Henderson also is widely hailed as a team player. Many of her publications have resulted from collaborative research and writing efforts. Giving her junior colleagues an opportunity to develop their skills and make their contributions has been one of her major passions, one which she continues to indulge to the benefit of our profession as a whole and many of its individual members.

Among Dr. Henderson's greatest contributions has been applying the feminist perspective to the profession at large. Her research not only has added to our body of knowledge but also has set a standard for including the woman's perspective in research conducted by other scholars. Her writings have encouraged an understanding of women in leisure. And her application of feminist perspectives within a historical context has initiated a more inclusive view of the role of women within professional development.

Her current work on women with disabilities is providing a focus to the role leisure plays for a group that mostly has been ignored in research efforts to date. Dr. Henderson's work has encouraged educators and practitioners alike to consider the multiple realities of women's lives and address solutions through leisure curricula and programs.

Her personal commitment to volunteerism perhaps has made this issue one of Dr. Henderson's main research concerns. One of her three books, Volunteers in Leisure: A Management Perspective (1989), in which she was a co-author, identified the values and issues confronting volunteers and those agencies who depend on this form of leadership.

Dr. Henderson also has made vital contributions to camping research literature, much of which stems from her personal experiences. Her advocacy of the oral history technique for preserving camp history and the role played by volunteers and women in the camping movement will help ensure the inclusion of these components in the history of the leisure movement.