New academic fields such as tourism, leisure or hospitality studies generally arise from professional practice that justifies courses or degree programs at universities and colleges. When a critical mass of students, programs, and teachers is reached, research and publications in research journals follow. The academics who teach, do research and publish within the emerging field typically need to elevate the status of their work from that of purely applied to something more theoretical and at the same time academically credible. This describes the evolution of tourism management with tourism studies, and recreation management with leisure studies, so we can similarly justify the relationships between ‘event management’ and ‘event studies’.