**Announcer voice "Who throws it down to Danielle Peers. Well
that was a terrific play..."** Does paralympic
sport contribute to greater social
justice? Or does it reinforce existing
inequalities? What new knowledges,
techniques and technologies are created
by disability inclusive sport, recreation
and performance art communities? My name
is Danielle Peers and i'm a new assistant
professor and the Faculty of Physical
Education and Recreation at the
University of Alberta. These are some of
the questions that my research
investigates. Essentially I do
sociological and theoretical research
around sport, physical activity,
recreation and art for people who
experience disability. This is anything from
the Paralympic Games to disability dance
So I work at the intersection of three
fields: critical physically studies,
adapted physical activity and sport
sociology. I use a range of research
approaches; historical research, called
genealogy; discourse analysis of texts;
interview-based works; and arts based
research creation methods. My work draws
strongly off my own experiences as
Paralympic athlete, parasport coach
and sports administrator, as well as my
work as a filmmaker and a performance
artist. Working with Danielle is really
exciting because they bring such a deep
understanding from their experience in
disability community that allows them to
layer disability politics and culture
into adapted physical activity in our
understanding of disability sport. The
media and motion lab is really exciting
because it provides opportunities and
resources to connect with scholars
across the campus who are looking at art
and different kinds of media as new ways
of knowing. So this is what the media in
motion lab is all about.We work
collaboratively on projects that use
creative methods like film, video games
and the Performing Arts to collect
create and/or translate knowledge about
the human body in motion. This is what I
spent last year researching with my Banting Postdoc at Concordia University
in Montreal. So Danielle and I are
collaboratively working on a SSHRC funded
project called Moving Towards Inclusion
Basically we're looking at who
actually gets the play parasport and
who might be systematically excluded
from parasport. To do this we are
analyzing the websites of parasport
programs across Canada from
the local level all the way to the
national and even the international
level. We're studying how classification
categories, equipment, rules, policies,
programs and representations all serve to
encourage some people with disabilities
to play and discourage or disqualify
others based on, for example, the type of
impairment. So of course we're going to
have, you know, traditional academic
publications out of the project but
what's so exciting what the project is
with so many ways to translate this
knowledge to make a difference. So in the
one hand we're thinking making a web app
so people who are interested in playing
sport can figure out what sports they
can play, and we're thinking of making a
film so that we can translate our
knowledge to everyone in French, English
and sign language. And third, a two-page
policy paper so people running these
organizations can figure out how they
can remove the barriers. I love both the
research and teaching aspects of my job
I love analyzing the social world from
the perspective of disability, and above
all I love working collaboratively. If
you're a student, researcher or community
member who's interested in some of these
questions or methods, feel free to
contact me.
