Mandi Baker, PhD

Biography

Dr. Baker completed her undergraduate degree at the University of Waterloo in the Dept. of Leisure Studies and Recreation Management with a specialty in Therapeutic Recreation. She went on to work in a youth cancer charity before returning to her studies. She completed her doctoral dissertation at Griffith University in Brisbane, Australia. During this time, she taught in the department of Tourism, Sport and Leisure Management and managed a 240-bed catered residence as Head of College. Mandi has taught across a range of leisure related courses including sociology, DEI, hospitality, leisure marketing, foundational studies and research methods (primarily qualitative).


Dr. Baker's research explores the emotional demands (emotion work), people skills (Affective Abilities) required, and organizational contexts (power-relations) in people-centric service work. She explores these concepts in organized outdoor experiences, youth & community development, recreation, and leisure contexts, and, progressively, in health service provision including clinical practice. Her work explores everyday work experiences through sociological concepts to offer fresh insights to ethical and sustainable leadership and education. More recently, her work has delved in to Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) practices within outdoor recreation as well as gender in family leisure studies. Mandi works extensively with summer camp providers and industry decision makers. She is a member of the Research and Evaluation Committee for the American Camps Association and the Governing Board for Outward Bound Vietnam. She co-hosts a podcast, The Pudding, about camp research and is a regular speaker for industry conferences and trainings. Mandi serves on the Editorial Boards of the World Leisure Journal and Journal of Youth Development.

Education

  • PhD, Leisure, Sport and Tourism, Griffith University
  • BA Hons, Recreation and Leisure Studies, University of Waterloo
     

Research Summary

  • Emotional labour of service providers
  • Power Relations with organizations and workplaces
  • Leisure sociology
  • Diversity, equity, inclusion and social justice of outdoor leisure activities
  • Young adult development and summer camp 

Recent Publications

Baker, M., Carr, N. & Stewart, E. (Eds.) (2021). Leisure activities in the outdoors: Learning, developing and challenging. CABI Publishing.

Baker, M. (2020). Becoming and Being a Camp Counsellor: Discourse, Power Relations and Emotions. Palgrave McMillan/Springer.

Baker, M. & O'Brien, W. (2023). An Impossible Job: How Self-Surveillance, Responsibilisation and Personalisation Shape Outdoor Leader Embodiment. Leisure Sciences 45(5), 400-417.

Hsiao, A., Ma, E., Baker, M., Manfreda, A., & Xu, J. (2023). A Social Exchange Perspective on Boosting Customer Loyalty through Culturally Competent Servers---The Mediation Role of Guest gratitude. Journal of Hospitality Marketing and Management, 32(4), 555-577.

Carr, N., Stewart, E., & Baker, M. (2022). Introduction to Special Issue (part 3) Being Outdoors: Being in the Urban Outdoors. Annals of Leisure Research 25(5), 565-568.

Stewart, E., Carr, N. & Baker, M.  (2022). Introduction to Special Issue (part 2) Being Outdoors: Other and Othering. Annals of Leisure Research, 25(4), 427-450.

Baker, M., Carr, N. & Stewart, E. (2022). Introduction to Special Issue (part 1) on Being Outdoors: Challenging and celebrating diverse outdoor experiences and embodiments.  Annals of Leisure Research 25(3), 305-313.

Baker, M. & Hannant-Minchel, J. (2022). “Both are equal, which is awesome”: Exploring gendered discourses in Canadian summer camps. Annals of Leisure Research, 25(3), 417-434.

Baker, M. (2021). Becoming a researcher: Navigating folded subjectivities in the research process. Leisure Sciences, 43(4), 352-361.

Baker, M., & O’Brien, W. (2020). Rethinking outdoor leadership: an investigation of affective abilities in Australian higher education curriculum. Journal of Adventure Education and Outdoor Learning, 20(3), 202-216.

Baker, M., Fullagar, S.P. & O’Brien, W. (2019). All in good fun: Governing camp experiences through discourses of ‘good’ and ‘fun’. Leisure Studies, 38(2), 260-273.

Baker, M. (2018). Welcome to the bubble: Experiences of liminality and communitas among summer camp counsellors. Journal of Youth Development, 13(1-2), 24-43.

Recent highlights

  • SSHRC Engage Grant ($25,000) Exploring and celebrating practices of safety, inclusion and mattering of queer youth in a United Church of Canada summer camp. Co-PI with Luc Cousineau, PhD.
  • Co-host of The Pudding, a podcast exploring research about summer camps. 
  • 2022 Research for Impact award, Torrens University
  • 2016 Excellence in Research award, Canadian Camping Association

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