Brian Wilson – Director
Brian Wilson is a Professor in the School of Kinesiology at the University of British Columbia. His background is in Sociology (Ph.D. at McMaster University, Department of Sociology), Communications (SSHRC postdoctoral fellow, Simon Fraser University, School of Communication), and Kinesiology (MA at the University of British Columbia and BPE at McMaster University). His main interests revolve around issues related to sport, the environment, peace and media. His most recent research includes studies on: environmental issues and sport — focusing especially on how stakeholders in the golf industry and mega-event organizers respond to environmental concerns; the role of sport in peace-building and development — including studies on the role of bicycles in development efforts and research on the role of elite Kenyan runners in peace promotion efforts following Kenya’s post-election violence in 2007-2008, and; how sport-related social and environmental issues are covered in the media — and the potential for more pro-social and pro-environment sport journalism. Brian’s work on these topics is contained in books he’s authored or edited: Sport and the Environment: Politics and Preferred Futures, The Greening of Golf: Sport, Globalization and the Environment (2020, Emerald Publishing — with Brad Millington); (2016, Manchester University Press — with Brad Millington) and Sport & Peace: A Sociological Perspective (2012, Oxford University Press). Information about Brian’s other writing and research can be found at: http://blogs.ubc.ca/sportenvironmentpeacemedia/.
Robert Boushel – Leadership Team
Dr. Boushel is Professor and Director of the School of Kinesiology at the University of British Columbia. His research covers broad areas of exercise physiology including regulation of the circulation, the oxygen cascade during exercise in diverse environments, and the adaptive response to various forms of training.
Andrea Bundon – Leadership Team
Dr. Bundon’s research spans the sociology of sport and critical disabilities studies.Working from community-based, participatory research frameworks, she focuses on the societal impacts and legacies of sport programs and events. Her past work has investigated if and how the Paralympic Games ‘inspire’ young people with disabilities to engage in sport and the experiences of para-athletes after exiting high performance sport. Currently, Dr. Bundon is working with viaSport BC to understand how the BC sport sector can be more inclusive of people with disabilities.
Moss Norman – Leadership Team
Moss uses a socio-cultural approach in the study of youth, gender (masculinity, in particular), health, and physical culture. He has done extensive research using critical and feminist theories to examine how differently situated people take up and experience health messaging related to body weight, shape and size within the context of the “obesity epidemic”. Recently, his research has shifted into the area of Indigenous masculinities. With this line of inquiry Moss is learning about Indigenous worldviews and he is increasingly incorporating Indigenous methodologies into his research. He also maintains secondary but active research interests in rurality and recreation. Moss is currently the principal investigator on a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) funded project that uses a community-based research design to explore Indigenous masculinities and physical cultures in Fisher River Cree Nation (Manitoba).
Liv Yoon – Leadership Team
Through her research, Dr. Yoon aims to address the intersections of social inequities, climate change, and health. Using primarily qualitative methods, she pursues inter- and trans-disciplinary research, with a focus on community engagement and participatory approaches. Underlying her research is thinking about bodies in sociopolitical contexts in order to understand how some bodies are considered more ‘dispensable’, and thus, rendered more vulnerable to climate-related harms and environmental pollution.
Dr. Yoon also maintains an active interest in critical physical cultural studies with a focus on race (among other various axes of social inequities), communication, popular culture, and social justice outcomes.
Through her teaching, Dr. Yoon seeks to provoke thinking about how various kinesiology course concepts can help understand and situate the body in social, political, cultural, and historical contexts – by ‘connecting the dots’ in one’s immediate surroundings as well as broader social issues. She seeks to foster an environment in which students’ diverse range of experiences and backgrounds come to matter, and thereby facilitate making the course concepts personally relevant.
Jeanette Steinmann – Research and Information Coordinator
Jeanette (she/they) is a PhD Candidate in the School of Kinesiology at UBC. Their MA at UBC (Kinesiology, 2020) focused on the experiences of homeless cyclists in Vancouver, BC. Prior to that she completed a B.Kin at the University of Calgary (2017). In her doctoral work she explores topics at the intersection of poverty, physical activity, environment, and transport.
Matt Dolf – Advisor
Matt completed a PhD in the School of Kinesiology at the University of British Columbia, conducting research on the environmental performance of sport events using Life Cycle Assessment methods. He is also the Wellbeing Initiative Director at UBC, a newly emerging endeavour focused on the development of UBC as a “wellbeing promoting” university, bringing together the health and sustainability sectors. He was formerly the Director, Special Olympics Initiatives for the Office of the Vice President, Students – overseeing the UBC hosting and sustainability planning for the Special Olympics Canada 2014 Summer Games. Matt has led research work in the fields of Event Management and Sustainability and co-authored the AISTS/VANOC Sustainable Sport and Event Toolkit (SSET). He advises sport organizations and events on sustainability and sits on the authoring committee of the new Canadian Z2010 Standard on Sustainable Event Management.