Shintaro Kono, PhD
Pronouns: He/him
Contact
Associate Professor, Faculty of Kinesiology, Sport, and Recreation - Academic Programs
- skono@ualberta.ca
Overview
Area of Study / Keywords
Leisure; Well-Being; Culture; Mixed Methods; Online Intervention
About
I am a Japanese who enjoys playing an MMORPG, playing badminton and golf, and watching sitcoms!
Degrees:
Ph.D., Faculty of Kinesiology, Sport, and Recreation, University of Alberta, Canada, 2017
M.S., Department of Recreation, Sport, and Tourism, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, U.S.A, 2012
B.A., Department of Sports and Leisure Management, Tokai University, Japan, 2011
Research
Dr. Kono's research revolves around the relationship between leisure engagement and subjective well-being. Specifically, he is interested in answering: How does leisure engagement increase participants' subjective well-being and why? He also examines this issue from a cross-cultural and non-Western perspective, by bringing in non-Western/English concepts such as ikigai (life worth living in Japanese). In addition, Dr. Kono has studied predictors of quality leisure engagement such as leisure constraints and constraint negotiation. He also utilizes a wide range of both qualitative (e.g., grounded theory, photo-elicitation) and quantitative (e.g., experiments, structural equation modeling) methods to address the said topics.
Teaching
RLS 100, Life Leisure and the Pursuit of Happiness
RLS 223, Leisure and Human Behavior
KSR 500, Concepts and Theories in Leisure and Recreation
Announcements
Currently, Dr. Kono is interested in mobilizing the knowledge on leisure and well-being to implement online leisure education in accessible media (e.g., YouTube videos) to improve subjective well-being on a large scale.
Courses
KIN 399B - Research Project
Directed research done under the supervision of an academic member in the Faculty of Kinesiology, Sport, and Recreation or approved research affiliate. Normally for students in their third year of study. Prerequisite: KIN 209 or 409 and consent of the Associate Dean (Undergraduate Programs). Students must arrange a project with an academic staff member or approved research affiliate. Enrolment is limited and preference will be given to students with GPA of 3.0 and above on their most recent 30 units.