He is a professor emeritus at the University of Calgary and was associate editor for Leisure and Voluntaristics Review: Brill Research Perspectives.
[3] Stebbins is the former president of Canadian Sociology and Anthropology Association[4] and Social Science Federation of Canada.
In 1976, Stebbins moved to Canada and joined the University of Calgary as head of the Department of Sociology till 1982 and then taught as a professor until 1999.
In 1971, he published Commitment to Deviance: The Nonprofessional Criminal in the Community which was recommended in Social Forces to “professions which deal with the problems of publicly labeled deviants.”[15] Stebbins published Amateurs: On the Margin Between Work and Leisure in 1979; Marianne Gosztonyi Ainley writes for Isis that it “offers useful definitions for amateurs and professionals.
"[16] In 1991, Lori V. Morris reviewed Stebbins' book The Laugh-Makers: Stand-Up Comedy as Art, Business, and Life-Style, writing: “Anyone with a fan's curiosity about comedians would likely find this book interesting.”[17] In 1996, Stebbins published The Barbershop Singer: Inside the Social World of a Musical Hobby.