Prior to joining Concordia University as a full-time faculty member in 2003, Dr. Peter Morden pursued academic training in leisure studies and employment within municipal, not-for-profit, and commercial leisure services for the better part of two decades. Over this time developed a profound interest in community efforts to serve the leisure needs of adolescents, ethnocultural communities, and impoverished populations as well as the psychological outcomes of leisure participation. Dr. Morden received his Master of Arts degree from Dalhousie University in 1998 and was awarded a PhD from the University of Waterloo in 2004.
Dr. Morden has published in diverse areas including the psychological antecedents of leisure satisfaction, leisure behaviour and ethnocultural identity development, and leisure policy and practice in Quebec. He has presented at both national and international conferences and has received numerous awards for his scholarship and contributions to the scholarly community. His most recent book, Deriving Satisfaction: Needs and Emotions in Everyday Life, was published in 2010.
He is currently Chair of the Department of Applied Human Sciences at Concordia and is an active contributor to university and community life, having served most recently as Associate Dean in the Faculty of Arts as well as a member of the Quartier Loyola committee which seeks to improve the integration of community and university life in the city’s west end.
Education
PhD Recreation and Leisure Studies, University of Waterloo
M.A. Recreation and Leisure Studies, Dalhousie University
B.A. Leisure Studies/Business Studies, Concordia University
Research interests
Leisure and adolescent development
Leisure and personal well-being
Leisure and marginalized populations
Gentrification
Psychogeography
Urban ethnography
Research grants
Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council/Sport Canada Joint Program: Sports Participation Research Initiative. Adolescent leisure opportunities in a gentrifying community. 2007-2011, $58 447.
Recent publications
Morden, P. A. (2010). Deriving satisfaction: Needs and emotions in everyday life. Saarbrüken, Germany: VDM Verlag Dr. Müller.
Morden, P. A., Hebblethwaite, S., & Hopp, R., (Eds.). (2008). Book of Abstracts: 12th Canadian Congress on Leisure Research. Montreal, QC: Canadian Association for Leisure Studies.
Morden, P. A. & Stebbins, R. (2007). Leisure in French Canada. In R. McCarville & K. MacKay (Eds.) Leisure for Canadians (pp. 165-172). State College, PA: Venture.
Morden, P. A., & Hopp, R.. (2007). Transracial adoptees: A new frontier in ethnicity and leisure research. Leisure/loisir, 31(1), 57-76.
Delamere, F. M., Morden, P. A., & Rose, H. A. (2006). Promoting resilience in youth through facilitating leisure engagement in self-determined community-serving projects. Journal of Child and Youth Care Work, 21, 18-28.
Havitz, M. E., Morden, P. A., & Samdahl, D. M. (2004).The diverse worlds of unemployed adults: Consequences for leisure, lifestyle, and well-being. Waterloo, ON: Laurier University Press.
Recent conference presentations
Morden,P. A. (2018,July). Understanding the experience of urban leisure spaces: Using geographically-explicit ecological momentary assessment to understand space-usepatterns, perceptions, and preferences of locals versus tourists. Paperpresented at the XIX ISA World Congress of Sociology, Toronto, Ontario.
Morden,P. A. (2017, May).Urban adolescents’ community perceptions as barriers to physical activity.Paper presented at the Fifteenth Canadian Congress on Leisure Research,Kitchener, Ontario.
Havitz, M. E. & Morden, P. A. (2016,July). Some years later – Perspectives on Diverse Worlds of Unemployed Adults:Consequences for Leisure, Lifestyle, and Well-Being. Paper presented at theThird ISA Forum of Sociology, Vienna, Austria.
