Professor, Geography
Core Faculty Member, American Studies; Affiliate Faculty, Center for Research on Race and Ethnicity in Society, African American & African Diaspora Studies
Rasul Mowatt is a researcher whose primary areas of focus, associated with Geography, are: geographies of Race, geographies of violence and threat, and the political animation of public space. Published work has been on analyzing lynchings as violent forms of leisure in the American Behavioral Scientist, criticisms of public participation in mega event planning such as the 2016 Olympic Bid for Chicago in Loisir et Société / Society and Leisure, Ghanaian Slave Castles in Annals of Tourism Research, a critique of Whiteness that dominants discourse in academic and professional fields in the Journal of Leisure Research, seeking alternative treatment programs for veterans with PTSD in the Therapeutic Recreation Journal, perceptions of sexual orientation among college athletes in the Recreation Sport Journal, and gender equity in tourism hospitality services in the Dominican Republic in Tourism Analysis: An Interdisciplinary Journal. His interests and concerns are strongly centered on critiquing society for issues that are most prevalent in impacting quality of life. Professor Mowatt has presented his work in more than ten countries, and has published in various leisure and tourism-related publications, as well as in other fields. His prior work included serving as a City Commissioner for the Champaign Human Relations Commission; Program Director for the American Friends Service Committee; Field Coordinator for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People; President for the Sunrise Rotary Club of Champaign-Urbana; and, Community Programs Manager for the Champaign Park District. It was this line of work that brought him to completing both his Master of Science degree in Park and Natural Resource Management at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where he previously completed a Bachelor of Arts in History (North and East African, Early American History). He would continue at the University Illinois for a PhD. In Leisure Behavior directly following his M.S.. The combination of these studies informed his dissertation work on looking at the nature and relationship between leisure, natural/built environment, and Race via lynching history and photography. He is set to become a co-editor for Leisure Sciences, is an associate editor for the Journal of Leisure Research, former editor-in-chief for Recreation, Park, and Tourism in Public Health, and a former associate editor for Schole. He is the former Chair of the Department of Recreation, Park, and Tourism Studies in the School of Public Health – Bloomington at Indiana University, served as a Co-Chair for the National Recreation and Park Association Leisure Research Symposium and The Academy of Leisure Sciences’ inaugural Institute/Conference. In February of 2020, he assumed the role and duties of President of The Academy of Leisure Sciences.
Rasul whole-heartedly reflects, quite often, on a quote from Octavia Butler’s Parable of Sower, “All that you touch, you change. All you change, changes you….”
Mowatt, R. A. (2020). Leisure with the Enemy: COVID-19 Criticisms, Allusions, and Reflections. Leisure Sciences. doi: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/01490400.2020.1773981
Mowatt, R. A. (2020). A People’s History of Leisure Studies: The Great Race, the National Park Service, and the U.S. Forest Service. Journal of Parks and Recreation Administration.doi: 10.18666/JPRA-2019-9674
Mowatt, R. A. (2019). Chapter 12: Events of Dissent, Events of the Self: The Liminality of Protest Images. In I. R. Lamond & J. Moss (Eds.), Liminality and Critical Event Studies: Boundaries, Borders and Contestation (pp. 223-245). London: Palgrave MacMillan.
Duffy, L. N., Pinckney, H., Benjamin, S., & Mowatt, R. (2019). A Critical Discourse Analysis of Racial Violence in South Carolina, U.S.A.: Implications for Traveling While Black. Current Issues in Tourism, 22(9), 2430-2446. doi: https://doi.org/10.1080/13683500.2018.1494143
Green, R. E., Northcutt, M. B., Gesselman, A. N., Mowatt, R. A., Maher, J., & Garcia, J. R. (2018). Graffiti with a Purpose: Social Justice Conversations in University Bathroom Stalls. Journal of Qualitative Criminal Justice and Criminology, 6(1), 73-92. http://www.jqcjc.org/documents/v6i1.pdf#page=76
Mowatt, R. A. (2018). Chapter 13: The Peculiar Heritage of Lynching in America: Confrontation, Reconciliation and Memorial. In Silverman, H. I. & Frihammer, M. (Eds.), Heritage of Death (pp. 178-192). London: Routledge.
Collazo, E., Dodge, B., Herbenick, D., Guerra-Reyes, L., Mowatt, R., Otero, I. Rodriguez-Diaz, C. (2017) Sexual Behaviors, Experiences of Sexual Violence, and Substance Use Among People who Inject Drugs (PWID) Accessing Health and Prevention Services in Puerto Rico. Puerto Rico Health Sciences Journal, 37(2), 88-97. http://prhsj.rcm.upr.edu/index.php/prhsj/article/view/1545/1117
Mowatt, R. A. (2017). Book review: (Sub)urban Sexscapes: Geographies and Regulation of the Sex Industry by Paul J. Maginn & Christine Steinmetz (Eds.). Leisure/Losir, 40(4), 493-495. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14927713.2016.1276729
Lee, K., Mowatt, R. A., Goff, K., Novotny, C., Rivin, A., & Walter, A. (2016). The Perceptions and Reflections on Race/Ethnicity Diversity in Outdoor Recreation. Journal of Cultural Diversity, 23(4), 158-164.
Mowatt, R. A., Johnson, C. W., Roberts, N. S., & Kivel, B. D. (2016). “Embarrassingly White”: Faculty Racial Disparities in American Recreation, Park & Tourism Programs. Schole: A Journal Of Leisure Studies & Recreation Education, 31(1), 37-55.
Mowatt, R. A., & Travis, J. (2015). Event Planning, Public Participation & Failure: A 2016 Olympic bid case Study. Revue Loisir et Societe - Leisure and Society, 38(2), 249-267.
Duffy, L. N., Kline, C. S., Mowatt, R. A., & Chancellor, C. (2015). Women in tourism: Shifting gender ideology in the Dominican Republic. Annals of Tourism Research, 52, 72-86.
Floyd, M. F., & Mowatt, R. A. (2014). Leisure and African Americans: A Historical Overview. In M. Stodolska, M. Floyd, K. J. Shinew, & G. J. Walker (Eds.), Race, ethnicity, and leisure (pp. 53-74). Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics.
Mowatt, R. A. (2014). Book review: Event power: How global events manage and manipulate by Chris Rojek. Leisure/Losir, 38(1), 98-101. doi: 10.1080/14927713.2014.933000 .
Duffy, L. N., Mowatt, R. A., Chancellor, H. C., & Cardenas, D. A. (2013). Machismo-Marianismo and the Involvement of Women in a Community-Based Tourism Project in Ecuador, South America. Tourism Analysis: An Interdisciplinary Journal, 17(6), 791-803. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.3727/108354212X13531051127384
Anderson, A. R., & Mowatt, R. A. (2013). Heterosexism in Campus Recreational Club Sports: An Exploratory Investigation into Attitudes Toward Gay Men and Lesbians. Recreational Sport Journal, 37(2), 106-122.
Mowatt, R. A. (2012). Lynching as leisure: Broadening notions of a field. American Behavioral Scientist, 56(10), 1361-1387.
Mowatt, R. A. (2012). Book review: Places of imagination: Media, tourism, culture by Stijn Reijnders. Leisure/Losir, 1-2. doi:10.1080/14927713.2012.701954
Mowatt, R. A., & Bennett, J. (2011). War Narratives: War Stories, PTSD Effects, and Therapeutic Fly-Fishing. Therapeutic Recreation Journal, 45(4), 286-308.
Mowatt, R. A., & Chancellor, H. C. (2011). Visiting Death & Life: Tourism, Slavery & Slave Forts. Annals of Tourism Research, 38(4), 1-25. doi:10.1016/j.annals.2011.03.012
The College of Arts