Danielle Peers, PhD, MA, BA

Contact

Associate Professor, Faculty of Kinesiology, Sport, and Recreation - Academic Programs

Email: peers@ualberta.ca
Address: 2-131 University Hall
8840 114 St NW

Edmonton AB

T6G 2J9

Overview

Area of Study / Keywords

critical disability studies adapted physical activity sport sociology

About

I am currently a Tier II Canada Research Chair in Disability and Movement Cultures. I am also the Co-director of the Just Movements CreateSpace and Co-PI of the Re-Creation Collective.

Degrees

PhD (Physical Education & Recreation), University of Alberta, 2015

MA (Physical Education & Recreation), University of Alberta, 2009

BA, with Distinction (Sociology & History), University of Alberta, 2001

Background

Currently a Canada Research Chair in Disability and Movement Cultures (SSHRC, Tier II) and a Killiam Laureate (Accelerator Award).
Alongside traditional academic publications, Peers also does research-creation and arts-based research, through dance/performance art and film. An example is the award-winning short dance on film, Inclinations: http://www.daniellepeers.com/inclinations.html
Completed Banting Postdoctoral Fellowship in Communication Studies at Concordia University in Montreal (2016), focusing on research-creation methods in critical disability studies. Completed their Phd and Masters at the University of Alberta, working from the Sociocultural and Adapted Physical Activity areas, respectively.
Peers previously competed as a Paralympic Athlete in wheelchair basketball (2002-2007), winning a bronze Paralympic medal and a world Championship. They also competed on several professional-level men’s teams. Further, they coached both wheelchair basketball and “stand up” basketball from local to elite levels (1993 – 2012), including assistant coaching at MacEwan University and program coaching for Wheelchair Basketball Canada.

Research

Dr. Peers’ work bridges three fields: adapted physical activity, socio-cultural sport and movement studies, and critical disability studies. Most of their research comes from poststructuralist and intersectonal, disability justice perspectives. Danielle's past research includes work on the Paralympic Movement, disability sport, disability/crip art, the creation of disabled subjectivity, equity and inclusion policies and practices in sport and recreation, and policies around physical fitness and disability in relation to gender and race. Further, they publish often on methodological and ethical challenges within their fields.

Dr. Peers has worked with various methods including: genealogy, auto-ethnography, interviews, discourse analysis. They also work with various art-based research-creation methods involving video, creative movement, and creative writing.

Dr. Peers is currently pursuing three primary research interests.

1. What are current practices and policies of organized disability sport in Canada that enable or constrain the meaningful participation of a wide range of people who experience disability?

2. What is the relationship of disability sport practices, policies and forms of representation to larger social justice issues around disability as well as other forms of marginalization?

3. What kind of new practices are “crip” and other disability-related movement communities inventing in order to enable broader meaningful participation and flourishing? How can we better recognize, share, and incubate these practices?

Publication list below is not fully updated. For full list of publications, see most recent CV or Google Scholar.

Teaching

I teach in the areas of qualitative methodologies, adapted physical activity, sports sociology, and critical disability studies.

I often guest lecture on topics related to critical disability studies, crip art and activism, as well as arts based and autoethnographic methods.

Announcements

I have a limited number of graduate student openings, I only supervise students who are using a social science or humanities lens - not a science or medical one. If you are interested in working with me, please specify in your email how much training/experience you have had in sociology, political theory, philosophy, critical disability studies or related sociocultural fields. Also specify how your project will take a sociocultural approach. Also please specify how your desired project connects with Dr. Peers' research.

Courses

KSR 581 - Scientific Inquiry and Qualitative Research Methodology

An examination of philosophical issues and contemporary research methodologies in the fields of physical activity, sport, recreation, and leisure. The emphasis of this course will be on qualitative inquiry. Note: Credit will be granted for only one of KSR 581, KRLS 581 or PERLS 581.

Fall Term 2025

Browse more courses taught by Danielle Peers

Featured Publications

Care haunts, hurts, heals: The promiscuous poetics of queer crip Mad care

Eales, L., Peers, D.

Journal of Lesbian Studies. 2021 June; 25 (3):163-181 10.1080/10894160.2020.1778849

Sport and social movements by and for disability and deaf communities: Important differences in self-determination, politicisation, and activism

Peers, D.

. In I. Brittain & A. Beacom (Eds.) Palgrave Handbook of Paralympic Studies (pp. 71-97). Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.. 2018 January;

View additional publications