KEYNOTES & SPEAKERS

Prof. Jeremy Freese

Jeremy Freese is Professor of Sociology at Stanford University. His "Sport, Competition, and Society" course is one of the largest at Stanford.  He conducts research on a variety of topics, including social science genomics, public opinion, health disparities, and social response to innovation.

In addition to his research, he is Co-Principal Investigator of the General Social Survey (GSS) and of Time-Sharing Experiments in the Social Sciences (TESS), two longrunning data collection projects sponsored by the US National Science Foundation.

Prof. Cassie Phoenix

Dr Cassandra Phoenix is based in the Department of Sport and Exercise Sciences at Durham University and an active member of Durham's Institute for Medical Humanities.

Her current research interests include ageing, well-being, blue-space and weather. This work has been funded by a range of organisations including the Wellcome Trust, the Economic and Social Research Council, the World Health Organisation, the National Institute of Health Research and the Leverhulme Trust. She is a member of the British Society of Gerontology Executive Committee and serves on Editorial Boards for: Qualitative Research in Sport, Exercise and Health; Scandinavian Journal of Medicine and Science in Sport; Journal of Ageing Studies; and Methods in Psychology.

Prof. Brent McDonald

Dr Brent McDonald is an Associate Professor and research fellow at the Institute for Health and Sport at Victoria University in Melbourne Australia. He teaches in the Sociology of Sport and his research focuses on sport, migration and inclusion, and the intersections of sport, science, and 'race.

Prof. Tricia McGuire-Adams

Dr. Tricia McGuire-Adams (from Bingwi Neyaashi Anishinaabek) holds a Canada Research Chair in Indigenous Ganandawisiwin/Good Health Sovereignties and is an Assistant Professor with the Faculty of Education at the University of Ottawa. Her research is rooted in Human Kinetics and Indigenous Studies where she uses Indigenous research methodologies to research Indigenous health, wellbeing, and physical activity from an Indigenous resurgence framework. 

Prof. Ansgar Thiel

Dr. Ansgar Thiel is Director of the Institute of Sports Science at the University of Tübingen and holds a Professorial Chair for Sport Sociology. Ansgar Thiel studied Sports Science, Psychology, and Psychogerontology. He completed his PhD and habilitation in sport sociology. His research interests comprise the sociology of sport, health and the body. 

Ansgar Thiel has published more than 200 articles in refereed journals, volumes, and handbooks. Some of his key papers are published in journals such as International Review for the Sociology of Sport, Sociology of Sport Journal, PLos ONE, BMC Public Health, Psychology of Sport and Exercise, Biological Psychology, Computers in Human Behavior etc. Ansgar also edited several volumes in the areas of sociology, health, and education. Ansgar was editor-in-chief of the European Journal for Sport and Society until May 2019.

Prof. Stephan Zipfel

Dr. Stephan Zipfel (from University Medical Hospital Tuebingen, Germany) is chair of the Department of Psychosomatic Medicine and Psychotherapy and is Professor and Vice-Dean of the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Tuebingen, Germany. He has a longstanding research interest in eating disorders and obesity and has conducted interdisciplinary research in physical activity and body image.  

Prof. Parissa Safai

Parissa Safai is a Professor in the School of Kinesiology and Health Science in the Faculty of Health at York University.  Her research interests focus on the critical study of sport at the intersection of risk, health and healthcare including the social determinants of athletes’ health.  Her interests also centre on sport and social inequality with focused attention paid to the impact of gender, socio-economic, and ethnocultural inequities on accessible physical activity for all.

Prof. Richard Giulianotti

Richard Giulianotti is Professor of Sociology at Loughborough University, and Professor II at the University of South-Eastern Norway.  He is joint editor of the journal Frontiers in Sports and Active Living. His main research interests are in the areas of sport, globalization, development, peace, youth, football, spectators/fandom, and mega-events.  He has undertaken numerous research projects funded by the UKRI and European Commission; he is the author and editor of many books, journal papers and journal special issues; and his work has been published in more than a dozen languages. 

Prof. Noora Ronkainen

Dr Noora Ronkainen is an Assistant Professor at the Institute of Sport Science at the University of Bern. She completed her doctoral research at Aarhus University (Denmark) and then held researcher positions at Shanghai Jiao Tong University (China), Liverpool John Moores University (UK), and University of Jyväskylä (Finland). Noora's research has focused on understanding meaning and identity in sport, athletes' career development, cultural issues, and qualitative research methodology. She has published over 60 peer-reviewed journal articles and co-authored the book "Meaning and Spirituality in Sport and Exercise: Psychological Perspectives" with Dr Mark Nesti. She is a host at the Physical Activity Researcher podcast where she is leading a thematic series on "Meaningful Sport".

Prof. Steven J. Jackson 

Steven J. Jackson is a Professor in the School of Physical Education, Sport & Exercise Sciences at the University of Otago, New Zealand. He is a past-President of the International Sociology of Sport Association (ISSA), and has published widely in the areas of: Sport, Media & Advertising, Globalisation, Sport & National Identity and Sport & Masculinity. Steve serves on the editorial boards of the International Review for the Sociology of Sport and Communication and Sport and he serves as the co-director of the New Zealand Centre for Sport Policy and Politics.

Prof. Marcelle C. Dawson 

Marcelle C. Dawson is an Associate Professor in the Sociology, Gender Studies Criminology Programme at the University of Otago, New Zealand. Her main areas of interest are: Social Movements and Popular Protest, Alternative Futures, Social Identities, and Epistemic Justice. Marcelle serves on the editorial boards of Journal of Sociology, Social Movement Studies and Identities: Global Studies in Culture and Power. Since 2013, she has been a Senior Research Associate at the Centre for Social Change at the University of Johannesburg, South Africa.    

Prof. Adam Evans

Dr Adam B. Evans is Assistant Professor in sociology of sport at the Department of Nutrition, Exercise and Sport (NEXS) at the University of Copenhagen, Denmark. He currently directs the ‘Sport, Health and Implementation’ research group at the same institution. He is currently Editor in Chief for the European Journal for Sport and Society, and a ‘member at large’ of the Qualitative Research in Sport and Exercise network. His work contains two key strands. Strand one involves monitoring and evaluation of sports programmes in the community at both the local and European levels. Strand two focuses upon the lived experiences of sport, exercise and physical activity amongst marginalised groups, particularly amongst older adults, and chronically ill and disabled groups.