Dr. Audrey Giles
Dr. Audrey Giles (she/her) is a settler and Full Professor in the School of Human Kinetics. An applied cultural anthropologist, through her research she works with Indigenous communities (primarily in the Arctic and Sub-Arctic) to examine the nexus of culture, gender, and place and how it influences participation in physical practices. Audrey currently has two main areas of research: i) Sport for development/sport for reconciliation with Indigenous communities (Principal Investigator; SSHRC Insight Grant), ii) and injury prevention (particularly water and boating safety) (currently funded through a grant from Transport Canada). When not doing research or teaching, Audrey can be found spending time with her beloved dogs (Echo and Bubba), and running, baking, or quilting.
Dr. Lyndsay Hayhurst
Lyndsay Hayhurst is a Tier 2 York Research Chair in ‘Sport, Gender and Development and Digital Participatory Research’ and Associate Professor in the School of Kinesiology and Health Science at York University in Toronto, Canada. Her research interests include sport for development and peace (SDP); gender-based violence and sexual and reproductive health in/through SDP; digital participatory action research; trauma-and violence-informed approaches to SDP; cultural studies of girlhood; postcolonial feminist theory; global governance, international relations and corporate social responsibility; SDP in Indigenous communities; and the gender, sport and environment nexus.
Dr. Daniel Henhawk
Dan Henhawk is an Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Kinesiology and Recreation Management at the University of Manitoba. His research interests revolve around the multiple conceptualizations of leisure and the socio-cultural study of sport and recreation. Specifically, he is interested in how understandings and meanings of leisure are changing in relation to understandings of work. He is also interested in Indigenous notions of decolonization, indigenization, sovereignty and self-determination. Overall, the main thread of his research seeks to trouble modern Western conceptualizations of leisure and, by extension, notions of work through a critical Indigenous lens.
Dr. Jeremy Hapeta
Dr Jeremy Hapeta (Ngāti Raukawa) is Associate Professor of Māori sport, physical education, health and wellbeing at Te Kaupeka Oranga, the Faculty of Health, University of Canterbury. Previously, he was a Senior Lecturer at the University of Otago. Before academia, Dr Hapeta was a fully registered Primary, Intermediate and Secondary school teacher in New Zealand as well as overseas. His research interests include kaupapa Māori methods and methodology, Indigenous perspectives of Sport for Development (SFD) and sport for reconciliation. He participates in academic working groups with Sport New Zealand and was also a part of New Zealand Rugby’s Training, Education and Development (TED) framework working group. In governance, he is into his second term as a Sport Manawatū Board member and has previously served on two of his daughter’s Schools' Boards of trustees.
Dr. Rochelle Stewart-Withers
Dr Rochelle Stewart-Withers (she/her) is Professor of Indigenous and International Development and Head of Programme for the Institute of Development Studies at Te Kunenga Ki Pūrehuroa Massey University in Palmerston North, Aotearoa New Zealand. She is an Indigenous feminist scholar, her iwi and hapū (tribal) affiliation are Ngāti Rāhiri Hapū o Te Ātiawa, in Taranaki, Aotearoa, and broadly her research critically explores the potential of sport as a means for improving economic and social outcomes in the Global South, especially at the community and household level. She has been particularly interested in how sport is used as an entry point into communities when looking to address gender and Indigenous social and economic disparities. Also, the ways athletes and communities see sport to be a livelihood option and to build capitals. In 2020, along with Dr. Jeremy Hapeta and Dr. Farah Palmer, she was awarded a prestigious New Zealand Royal Marsden Grant - ‘Marsden Fund, Te Pūtea Rangahau a Marsden’Grant (2021) - for the project ‘Our Game by Our Rules: Bringing an Indigenous perspective to the Sport-for-Development (SFD) field’. She is on the UNESCO Research Chair’s Sport for Development, Peace and the Environment Advisory Committee and the Editorial Board for the Sociology of Sport Journal. Rochelle is partner to Pete and mum to 5 young people 26-21 years, and nanny to Waimoana.
Dr. Steven Rynne
Dr. Steven Rynne is a settler scholar at The University of Queensland, Australia. He’s an Associate Professor and Program Convenor for Sports Coaching with the School of Human Movement and Nutrition Sciences and is an affiliate appointment with the Poche Centre for Indigenous Health. The major theme that runs throughout Steven’s work is learning in sport. Within this broad theme he has worked and conducted research with a variety of peak domestic and international sporting bodies aimed at fostering high performance through learning (e.g. how elite coaches learn their craft) and understanding outcomes for sport participants (e.g. sport for reconciliation). Steven teaches undergraduate and graduate students, and has been immersed in junior and community sport settings for more than two decades.
Dr. Alexandra Giancarlo
Alexandra Giancarlo is a settler scholar and an Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Kinesiology at the University of Calgary, where she applies her broad social sciences training to socio-cultural studies of sport and physical activity. The bulk of her research comprises community-engaged research with residential school survivors and their families. Dr. Giancarlo's research draws attention to the connections between physical activity and cultural identity for Indigenous peoples. Current projects include documenting the nationwide healing walks that occurred after the announcement of probable unmarked graves at the former Kamloops Indian Residential School, a partnership with the Siksika Nation to record community sports history for their future Sports Hall of Fame, and a forthcoming book co-written with the surviving members of a champion residential school hockey team.
Dr. Shawn Forde
Bio to come.
Britta Peterson
Britta Peterson (she/her) is a third-year PhD candidate at the University of Ottawa under the supervision of Dr. Audrey Giles. She is an unsettled settler and Certified Therapeutic Recreation Specialist (CTRS) with the National Council for Therapeutic Recreation Certification (NCTRC). Britta completed a Masters of Arts in Sustainable Leisure Management at Vancouver Island University and a Masters Certificate in Polar Trourism at the University of the Arctic. Her current research is focused on Indigenous Peoples' and newcomers' experiences of inclusion belonging (or lack thereof) at pump tracks. In her leisure time, she is passionate about exploring nature by canoe and bike, drinking lattes, and challenging social and systemic inequities.
Meredith Wing
Meredith (she/they) is a second-year master's student under the co-supervision of Dr. Audrey Giles (University of Ottawa) and Dr. Nancy Spencer (University of Alberta). Meredith graduated from Queen’s University with a BSc in Kinesiology and a Certificate in Disability and Physical Activity. She fostered her passion for disability advocacy and health promotion throughout her time as a student trainer in the Revved Up accessible gym and as an undergraduate researcher. While at Queen’s, Meredith also spent time exploring their love of music and philosophy, hosting a weekly radio show. As part of the team, Meredith contributes her unique perspective as a disabled person and, in her thesis, is examining the participation (or lack thereof) in Indigenous multi-sport events of Indigenous peoples who experience disability.
Jenni Booth
Bio to come.
Project Alumni
Dr. Tom Fabian
Tom Fabian is a Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Ottawa, working with Dr. Audrey Giles. The focus of his research is on the cultural history and anthropology of traditional games. As per the current research program on sport for reconciliation (SFR), he has a number of research projects on the go, including (i) a media analysis of Indigenous games revival, (ii) traditional games at Indigenous multi-sport events, (iii) UNDRIP and SFR, (iv) the pedagogization of Indigenous games, (v) safeguarding games through digital resources, and (vi) the revival of the Mi'kmaq game of Waltes. The cultural histories, community meanings, and (re)invention and revival of Indigenous traditional games in Canada, Australia, and Aotearoa New Zealand are complex, contested, and essential in any meaningful reflection and research on Indigenous physical cultures and sport. Tom lives and works in Mi'kma'ki, the unceded territory of the Mi'kmaq people, with his partner, offspring, and canine.
Avery Holmes
Avery Holmes is a second-year master's student whose research interests include gender, reconciliation, sport organizations, and lacrosse. She is co-supervised by Dr. Audrey Giles and Dr. Lyndsay Hayhurst of York University. Avery recently graduated from Queen's University with a BA (Hons.) in Gender Studies. Avery has played, coached, and refereed lacrosse throughout the past 12 years. In her spare time, she likes to hang out with her puppies, George and Izzy, and cat, Mildred.
Nora McRae
Nora (she/her) is in her second year of the Master of Arts in Human Kinetics program at the University of Ottawa. She recently graduated from the University of Ottawa with an Honours Bachelor in Human Kinetics with a minor in Psychology. Under the supervision of Dr. Audrey Giles and Dr. Lyndsay Hayhurst, Nora’s research will be focused on examining safe sport policies as they relate to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s Calls to Action, specifically Call 90 as it relates to anti-Indigenous racism awareness and training. In her spare time, Nora enjoys hiking, playing sports, and spending time with family and friends.
Jessica Nachman
Jessica (she/they) is a Master's student at York University, studying under the supervision of Dr. Lyndsay Hayhurst. Her research interests include anti-racism, decolonial feminism, physical culture, and sport. Prior to their Master's, Jessica completed their undergraduate degree of Kinesiology at the University of Toronto. During her studies, Jessica conducted a qualitative research study on Whiteness in post-secondary kinesiology programs in Canada. Currently, Jessica is working on the SSHRC Bicycles-for-Development grant, conducting participatory action research on anti-racism, gender-based violence prevention, and environmental justice using the bicycle. As part of the Sport for Reconciliation project, Jessica is combining theories of Refusal with Indigenous youth sport (non-)participation.
