Dr Katherine Dashper

About Dr Katherine Dashper

Dr Kate Dashper is Reader within the School of Events, Tourism and Hospitality Management. Her research applies a critical sociological lens to examine practices of work and leisure, with particular focus on gender issues and interspecies encounters in events, tourism and hospitality.

Kate is an internationally recognised researcher for her work in human-animal studies. Through her research on equestrian sport and leisure, Kate examines how humans and nonhumans work and play together, and the interspecies relationships that can develop through joint action and interaction. Her research considers the potential contributions that multispecies perspectives can make to understanding events, tourism and hospitality practices and organisations.

Kate’s other main area of expertise is gender, and she has conducted research and consultancy projects within both the events and equestrian industries, evaluating gender equality initiatives in organisations and exploring the gendered experiences of women and men within professional and leisure contexts.

Kate specializes in the social and cultural aspects of sport, leisure and events. She has expertise in relation to gender and equality, and in researching encounters between human and nonhuman animals in a variety of sport, leisure and event spaces.

Much of Kate's research has focused on equestrian sport and leisure. Drawing on theoretical insights from human-animal studies, she is interested in exploring the role of nonhuman animals within human leisure and the interspecies relationships that can develop through joint action and interaction.

Kate’s other main area of expertise is in relation to gender. She has conducted research and consultancy projects within both the events and equestrian industries, exploring gender equality initiatives and the experiences of women and men within different professional and leisure contexts.

Current Teaching

Kate teaches human resource management and research methods at undergraduate and postgraduate levels on the events management programmes. She is currently supervising PhD students researching a variety of issues in events, tourism and hospitality. She welcomes applications in relation to:

• Gender and events, tourism and hospitality
• Emotional and aesthetic labour in events, tourism and hospitality organisations
• Organisational behaviour in events, tourism and hospitality
• Multispecies perspectives on events, tourism and hospitality
• Nature and the outdoors and events, tourism and hospitality

Research Interests

Kate’s research initially focused on gender within the multispecies context of equestrian sport, and she has developed these two areas of interest in subsequent projects. She is a leading researcher in human-horse relationships, and has conducted a number of projects examining interspecies encounters through events and tourism. She is particularly interested in rural and outdoor events and tourism, and interactions with nature and leisure landscapes. She is author of the 2017 monograph Human-animal relationships in equestrian sport and leisure (Routledge) and edited the 2014 collection Rural tourism: An international perspective (Cambridge Scholars).

Kate’s PhD was part sponsored by the journal Gender, Work and Organization and she retains a keen interest in exploring gender within events, tourism and hospitality organizations. She has conducted research on gender equality initiatives in the events industry, and has been invited to speak on the issues affecting women in events at a variety of international industry meetings and conferences. She works closely with companies and individuals to understand the challenges and opportunities facing women in the industry. Her work considers some of the challenges and opportunities of work within the events, tourism and hospitality sectors.

Kate is an ethnographic researcher. She deploys traditional ethnography, autoethnography and multispecies ethnography to consider various ways in which events, tourism and hospitality can contribute to understanding of wider social and cultural issues.

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• Will the lack of diversity in the events industry be addressed in 2018?