Richard Keith Wright

Dr Richard Keith Wright is an Associate Professor in Sport, Leisure and Active Ageing, within the AUT School of Sport, Exercise and Health. Dr Wright is Co-Director of the AUT Active Ageing Research Centre and Programme Leader of the Graduate Certificate and Graduate Diploma in Sport and Exercise. He describes himself as a leisure sociologist and social gerontologist who facilitates co-designed/created participant action research and arts-based scholarship. His project-based teaching, research and industry engagement activities showcase sport, serious leisure and active ageing as a visible, valuable and viable means of inspiring social change and sustainable development. Dr Wright's academic outputs have accrued over 300 citations.

Dr Wright was an Associate Editor for the International Journal of the Sociology of Leisure between 2017-2025 and currently holds the same roles for the Journal of Sport and Tourism and the Frontiers in Sports and Active Living (Sport, Leisure, Tourism, and Events). He also sits on the Editorial Board of Annals of Leisure Research. Dr Wright was a board member of the Australia and New Zealand Association for Leisure Studies (ANZALS) from 2017-2023, co-chairing their 30th Anniversary Conference in 2023. He joined the board of New Zealand Association of Gerontology in December 2025, and is a member of the organising committee of their 2026 Conference in Christchurch.

Within the industry, Dr Wright has helped design, direct and deliver numerous sports events, including the 2012 World Triathlon Grand Final and 2014 World Veteran Table Tennis Championships. He was Chair of the North Shore Table Tennis Association from 2016-2020 and Secretary of the Auckland Sunday Football Association from 2021-2023. In 2022, Rich was elected Chair of the Sporting Memories Foundation Aotearoa New Zealand, a newly established charitable trust that helps people offer hope and happiness to older adults living with dementia, depression and loneliness.