Janelle Joseph Photo

Janelle Joseph, Assistant Professor, Critical Studies of Race & Indigeneity

  • Assistant Professor, Critical Studies of Race & Indigeneity
  • Founder and Director, IDEAS (Indigeneity, Diaspora, Equity and Anti-Racism in Sport) Research Lab
  • Connaught Scholar
55 Harbord Street, Toronto, ON M5S 2W6

About Janelle

Academic Training

SSHRC Banting Post-doctoral Fellow — Faculty of Education, Ontario Tech University, Oshawa, Canada 2012-2014

Post-doctoral Fellow — School of Physical Education, Sport and Exercise Science, University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand 2010-2012

PhD — Exercise Sciences, Faculty of Physical Education and Health, University of Toronto, 2010

MSc — Exercise Sciences, Faculty of Physical Education and Health, University of Toronto, 2006

BSc — School of Kinesiology, University of Western Ontario, London, Canada, 2001, Scholars Electives Program

Graduate Student Recruitment Status
Accepting PhD and MSc students
Research Interests

See current projects at: Indigeneity, Diaspora, Equity and Anti-racism in Sport (IDEAS) Research Lab

Research interests include:

  • Racial Justice, health and sport
  • Embodied learning and leadership, physical activity access
  • Anti-Racism policy and practice in post-secondary athletics
  • Diaspora, trans-nationalism, post-colonialism, and globalization
  • Decolonizing sport studies, global indigeneity, recreation and leisure
  • Critical Race and Decolonial Theory, Methodologies, Pedagogies, Ethics 
  • (Auto-)Ethnographic, narrative, and community-based qualitative methodologies
  • Black Canadian Studies, anti-Black racism, Black resistance, joy, and empowerment 

Watch video of Janelle Joseph sharing work funded by the Black Research Network to offer a deeper understanding of Black life in Canada's sports and recreation sectors. 

Watch video poem of Janelle Joseph and the Re-Creation Collective presenting their award-winning research Awakening to Elsewheres: Collectively Re Storying Experiences of (Be)Longing

Watch video of Janelle Joseph and her colleague at KPE, Associate Professor Simon Darnell, discuss their research into sport as a tool for peace and development.

 

Selected Publications

PEER REVIEWED ARTICLES

Hamdonah, Z. & Joseph, J. (2024). Indigenous Dance, Cultural Continuity, and Resistance: A Netnographic Analysis of the Palestinian Dabke in the Diaspora, Media Culture and Society.  https://doi.org/10.1177/01634437241228735

Joseph, J. & Bain, N.* (2024). Leisure as Black Survival: Ballroom, Vogue and Black Queer and Trans+ Activism in Canada, Leisure/Loisir.

McKenzie, A.I. & Joseph, J. (2023) Whitewashed and Blacked Out. Counter-Narratives as an Analytical Framework for Studies of Ice Hockey in Canada. Sociology of Sport Journal. https://doi.org/10.1123/ssj.2022-0065.

Peers, D., Joseph, J., Chen, C., Fawaz, N.*, Tink, L., Eales, L., Bridel, W. Hamdon, E.., Carey, A. & Hall, L. (2023). An Intersectional Foucauldian Analysis of Canadian National Sport Organisations’ ‘equity, diversity, and inclusion’ (EDI) policies and the reinscribing of injustice. International Journal of Sport Policy and Politics. 15(2) 193-209. https://doi.org/10.1080/19406940.2023.2183975

Joseph, J. Tajrobehkar, B., Hamdonah, Z.*, & Estrada, G.*, (2022). Racialized Women in Sport in Canada: A Scoping Review. Journal of Physical Activity and Health Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1123/jpah.2022-0288

Peers, D., Joseph, J., McGuire-Adams, T., Eales, L., Fawaz, N.*, Chen, C., Hamdon, E., Kingsley, B., (2022). We become gardens: Intersectional methodologies for mutual flourishing. Leisure/Loisir 47(1), 27-47. https://doi.org/10.1080/14927713.2022.2141836

Kriger, D. Keyser-Verrault, A., Joseph, J. & Peers, D. (2022). The Operationalizing Intersectionality Framework, Journal of Clinical Sport Psychology, 16(4), 302-324. https://doi.org/10.1123/jcsp.2021-0069.

Joseph, J., McKenzie, A.I. (2022). Black Women Coaches in Community: Promising Practices for mentorship in Canada. Frontiers in Sports and Active Living. https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fspor.2022.884239/full

McGuire-Adams, T., Joseph, J. Eales, L., Peers, D., Bridel, W., Hamdon, E., & Chen C. (2022). Awakening to elsewheres: Collectively restorying embodied experiences of (be)longing. Sociology of Sport Journal https://doi.org/10.1123/ssj.2021-0124

Joseph, J. & Glean, J. (2022). Navigating Black Women’s Leadership, Imposter Phenomenon, and Intergenerational Mentorship in Post-secondary Education. In Wane, N., Odozor, E. & Brady, J. (Eds.), Black Women’s Worldview. Inanna Publications.

Ashdown Franks, G., & Joseph, J. (2021). Mind your business and leave my rolls alone: A Case study of fat Black women runners' decolonial resistance. Societies 11(95), 1-17 https://doi.org/10.3390/soc11030095

Joseph, J. & Kerr, E. (2021). Assemblages and co-emergent corpomaterialities in postsecondary education: Pedagogical lessons from somatic psychology and physical cultures. Somatechnics.

Joseph, J. (2021) Diasporas in Sport: Networks, Nostalgia and the Nuances of Dwelling. In J. Maguire, K. Liston & M. Falcous (Eds). Handbook of Globalisation and Sport. Palgrave.

Joseph, J., Williams, B., & Lewis, T. (2021).  The Exploring Difference Workshop: Adapting group relations to explore questions of difference and antiracism in Toronto, Canada. Organizational and Social Dynamics 21(1), 40–55.

Nachman, J., Joseph, J. & Fusco, C. (2021). ‘What if what the professor knows is not diverse enough for us?”: Whiteness in Canadian Kinesiology programs, Sport, Education, and Society,  https://doi.org/10.1080.13573322.2021.1919613

Gauthier, V., Joseph, J. & Fusco, C. (2021). Lessons from Critical Race Theory: Outdoor Experiential Education and Whiteness in Kinesiology, Journal of Experiential Education, 1-17, https://doi.org/10.1177/10538259211006739

Joseph, J. & Kriger, D. (2021). Towards a Decolonizing Kinesiology Ethics Model. Quest 1-17, https://doi.org/10.1080/00336297.2021.1898996

Darnell, S., Razack, S. & Joseph, J. (2021). Sport, Social Movements and Digital Media. In. E. Pike (Ed.). Research Handbook on Sport and Society (pp. 53-67)Edward Elgar Publishing.

Joseph, J. (2021). A Dance Flash Mob, Canadian Multiculturalism, and the Politics of Belonging. In B. Stolar, A. C. Lindgren, & C. Sacchetti (Eds.) Dance Lessons: Performing Cultural Diversity in Canada. Waterloo, ON: Wilfred Laurier Press.

Razack, S. & Joseph, J. (2020). Misogynoir in Women’s Sport Media: Race, Nation, and Diaspora in the Representation of Naomi Osaka. Media, Culture and Society, 43(2), 291-308. 10.1177/0163443720960919

 

BOOKS

Joseph, J. (2017). Sport and the Black Atlantic: Cricket, Canada, and the Caribbean diaspora. Manchester, UK: Manchester University Press.

Joseph, J. & Crichlow, W. (Eds.) (2015). Alternative offender rehabilitation and social justice: Arts and physical engagement in criminal justice and community settings. London: Palgrave Macmillan.

Joseph, J., Darnell, S., & Nakamura, Y. (Eds.) (2012). Race and sport in Canada: Intersecting inequalities. Toronto: Canadian Scholars Press (Forward by Rinaldo Walcott).

Currently Funded Projects

Principal Investigator, Mobilizing Black Women's Leadership, Connaught Major Research Challenge for Black Researchers $250,000

Co-Applicant, Partnership for Equitable, Diverse, and Inclusive Participation, Access, and Quality Experiences in Youth Sport, Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council Partnership Grant, with Catherine Sabiston, principal applicant $2,500,000

Co-Applicant, A People’s History of Sport in Canada, Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council Insight Grant with Russell Field, principal applicant $192,626

Co-Director, “So what do we do now?": Moving intersectionality from academic theory to recreation-based praxis, Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) Race, Gender and Diversity Initiative, with Peers, D., director; McGuire-Adams, T., Co-director $450,000

Principal Applicant, Enhancing Post-Secondary Access for Black, Indigenous and other Marginalized Youth through Embodied, Cultural and Community-Engaged Learning, University of Toronto Access Programs University Fund, $82,580

 Principal Applicant, Anti-Black Racism and Equity Efforts in Canadian Post-Secondary Sport, Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council Insight Development Grant $75,000 

  • with additional funded partnerships with Ontario University Athletics ($25,000), Canada West University Athletics  ($25,000), Atlantic University Sport ($25,000), and Ontario Colleges Athletic Association ($25,000)

Principal Applicant, Movement as Health and Healing: Documenting the Sporting Experiences of Black Women, Girl, and Non-binary Athletes and Physical Educators in Canada, E-Alliance: Gender Equity in Sport Research Hub Seed Grant, $20,000

Awards and Recognition

2023                      Canada's Top 100 Black Women to Watch of 2023 (Canada International Black Women Excellence)

2023                       North American Society for the Sociology of Sport (NASSS) Research Fellows Award

2023                      Emerging Leisure Scholar Award, Canadian Association of Leisure Studies

2022                      Elected Member, Royal Society of Canada, College of New Scholars, Artists and Scientists

2020                       Impact Award, International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, University of Toronto

2019                       Chancellors Emerging Leader Award of Excellence, University of Toronto

2018                       Anti-Racism and Cultural Diversity Award - International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, University of Toronto

Professional Memberships

Black Canadian Studies Association, Co-President

North American Society for the Sociology of Sport, Member    

Women & Gender Studies Institute (WGSI), Affiliate Faculty Member

 Association for Studies of the Worldwide African Diaspora, Member

Center for Research and Innovation for Black Survivors of Homicide Victims, University of Toronto, Faculty Affiliate

Institute for Dance Studies, University of Toronto Member

Insight for Community Impact, Director of Embodiment Research

Center for Sport Policy Studies, University of Toronto, Associate Member

Affliations
IDEAS Research Lab