Welcome, Danielle Peers!

Former Faculty PhD student Danielle Peers joins the Faculty of Physical Education and Recreation as assistant professor

Nicole Graham - 04 July 2016

The Faculty of Physical Education and Recreation welcomed Dr. Danielle Peers to the professor ranks on July 1st as an assistant professor in Adapted Physical Activity.

No stranger to the University of Alberta, Danielle received her Masters and PhD at the Faculty of Physical Education and Recreation and her BA in Sociology with the Faculty of Arts. Danielle has seen a lot of success in her life as a student, athlete and artist.

Danielle shares a bit about her past, her current research and what she is looking forward to in her new role as assistant professor.

First of all, welcome back to the Faculty of Physical Education and Recreation! Can you tell us a bit about what you've been doing over the past year?

Thank you! It is unbelievably great to be back!! I have had a year of intense learning and connection since finishing my PhD in March 2015. Thanks to a Banting Postdoctoral Fellowship (SSHRC), I studied with Dr. Kim Sawchuk in Communication Studies at Concordia University in Montreal. They have a vibrant Critical Disability Working Group there that I learned a lot from. They also have an amazing collection of scholars who practice research-creation: a form of research that blends artistic and technical making with academic methods. I learned from researchers who are making podcasts, films, art installations, performances, and video games, for example, as high quality research. I learned how this can enable not only more accessible research outputs but also sometimes more collaborative and meaningful engagement with the communities we work with. I then put some of these new skills into practice on my own postdoctoral research on flourishing in disability movement communities.

The last time you came through the doors at the University of Alberta, you were a PhD student. What does it feel like to return as an assistant professor?

It was honestly pretty surreal to see my name up on my office door. I think that is when it hit me. I honestly feel so overwhelmed with gratitude about coming back to work here. This is such an amazingly interdisciplinary faculty, with so many researchers I deeply respect who continue to be so supportive of my work here. I cannot imagine a place I would rather be doing this work.

You've had the distinct honour of being a Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarship (SSHRC) (2009) and a Trudeau Foundation Scholarship (2011) recipient. What does it mean to you to have been a recipient of these two distinct and highly sought-after scholarships?

Each of these scholarships has supported my research in very different ways. The Vanier is a very generous scholarship - it offered strong financial support so I could focus on my research, but also some media attention about my research, which helped me to reach more people with my findings. The Trudeau Foundation Scholarship offered something that no other scholarship I know of does: a community of scholars, established academics, and mentors from outside of Academia to support and push my research (at least three times a year!) to have as significant an impact on Canadian policy, communities, and society as possible. These cross-disciplinary and cross-sector conversations added breadth to my knowledge about social issues in Canada, but also crucial skills and knowledge about mobilizing research findings.

Both of these scholarships funded the same doctoral project, which was titled: "From eugenics to Paralympics: Inspirational disability, physical fitness, and the white Canadian Nation." The project used a method called genealogy to trace a range of national and provincial policies in Canada (for example: immigration, social security, sterilization & institutionalization, sport & physical activity). In so doing I argued a couple of key points. First, that we cannot understand the history of disability policy in Canada without also understanding our policies around race and colonization. Second, I argued that Canadian policies around physical fitness and disability are deeply imbedded in histories of Eugenics. I argued that this eugenic and racist past is still (often unknowingly) reflected in contemporary disability sport policies, discourses, and imagery - including that of inspirational disabled athletes like Terry Fox and Rick Hansen. In recognizing the ways these histories affect the present, I argue that we can make different choices about representing and governing disability sport in ways that are far more inclusive and less dangerous.

Your current research stems from your experiences as a Paralympic Athlete and parasport coach. Can you tell us a bit about your research around improving parasport experiences and opportunities, and how your athletic history helps with your investigation?

I think that one of the most dangerous things we can do - especially around things we care about - is assume that they are entirely positive or empowering. Many of my Paralympic experiences were really positive, but there were also many that were deeply disturbing - including disabled people being excluded from decision-making, the systemic exclusion of the vast majority of disabled people at all levels of Parasport participation, and representations of Paralympians (including myself) that do harm to the majority of people experiencing disability. Because parasport has so many positive things to offer, I believe that it is crucial that we offer the critiques that will challenge some of its greatest shortcomings.

What other research projects are you currently conducting?

I am just completing my postdoctoral project, which is a collaborative study about how small disability-inclusive communities often create innovative practices and techniques for increasing the meaningful inclusion and flourishing of a wide range of people experiencing disability. For example, one integrated dance community practices a way of setting up meeting and performance spaces that drastically increases choice and opportunity for people who use mobility tools. Another community has created decision-making practices that actively value multiple forms of communication. Others are prioritizing food, transportation, and childcare as part of basic accessibility. These are seemingly small innovations, but they can have a massive affect on shifting who gets to meaningfully participate, who gets to make decisions, and at what cost for the individual. Through this collaborative research, we hope to incubate and share these practices so that other communities can try them out.

Also, I am just starting a new project that involves cataloging and analyzing all of the disability sport and recreation programs in Canada. In particular, I am using program websites to analyze the rules, classification structures, policies, equipment, and discourses that may enable or encourage certain kinds of participants while excluding or discouraging others. I want to identify who is, and who is not, being served by a parasport system that prides itself on inclusivity. I hope to identify which groups are currently under-served, which barriers are most common, which programs offer the least barriers to broad participation, and which organizational and national policies could improve the situation.

Along with being a successful athlete and parasport coach/leader, you also have a very strong artistic side. Tell us a bit about your work as a filmmaker, curator, performer and co-founder of KingCrip Productions and CRIPSiE.

I came to art for two main reasons. First, I started making films because I believe that some forms of art can be incredible for translating research and theory to make them accessible and relatable for people outside of the University. Second, after my heart surgery, I found that parasport programs no longer worked well for me. I found that certain artistic programs (like CRIPSiE's integrated dance) offered me the embodied movement practices and movement communities I love without the health risks inherent in competitive sporting environments. After engaging in art for a while, however, I learned that art forms not only translate knowledge, they can help express, share, and create knowledge. This was the recognition - thanks largely to the work of Lindsay Eales - that helped me to recognize some of my artistic practices as conducive to research-creation.

What has been your most proud and/or significant moment as a researcher?

My proudest academic moment was probably when I first released my Masters' thesis - on the Paralympics - and got feedback from numerous former Paralympians about how much it resonated. When one is deep in academic research, I think it is sometimes hard to know how one's work will relate to the world outside the University. I started my Masters project because there was something in my Paralympic experience that was definitely not empowering, but that I could not quite identify. In identifying it, I found that myself and others were able to start mobilizing for change. This, I think, is what hooked me into doing my PhD.

As a Masters and PhD student in the Faculty of Physical Education and Recreation, you worked under the supervision of Donna Goodwin and Pirkko Markula-Denison, respectively. How does it feel to be returning to the Faculty as Dr. Goodwin and Dr. Markula-Denison's colleague?

I have had some pretty exceptional mentors in this Faculty, including my two supervisors. Dr. Donna Goodwin has always shared her extraordinary skill in asking the questions that shift how I think, and pushed me to always consider the ethical so-what in every new way of thinking. Dr. Pirkko Markula-Denison really coached me in the arts of academia: how to get published, how to take hard reviews and keep on writing, how to write across disciplines, and importantly, how to create grad student community. I still have so much more to learn from these, and numerous other Faculty Members here, but each of them has been so inviting about that learning now shifting to more of a colleague relationship.

Are you supervising any graduate or undergraduate students at the moment?

I am not supervising anyone this year, but am already on a couple of committees. I have been thinking a lot recently about how I can learn from the incredible mentors I have had in trying to support my own graduate students. I am really looking forward to the opportunity to support and learn from my own graduate students.

Do you have anything you'd like to add?

One of the things that most excites me about working in this Faculty is the range of disciplines it represents. My success, as an athlete, relied on biomechanical specialists, sport psychologists, and great coaches. My opportunities to play and train relied on adapted physical activity specialists. My health is indebted to cardiovascular, neuromuscular, and respiratory research. And my passion for social justice draws heavily from historical and socio-cultural perspectives. It is such a gift to be researching in a space with so many possible ways to study, imagine, and connect to bodies in motion.