Managing Editor

Courtney Szto

Courtney (@courtneyszto) is an Assistant Professor at Queen’s University in the School of Kinesiology and Health Studies. Her PhD research focused on the connections between hockey, Canadian citizenship, and race and was published as “Changing on the Fly: Hockey through the voices of South Asian Canadians.” Her writing has appeared in outlets such as Interrupt Magazine, BlogHer, Rabble, and Delirious Hem. When not at the rink, she likes hiking, eating, and photography (not necessarily in that order). Courtney is also Past-President of the United Nations Association in Canada – Vancouver Branch.

Senior Editor

Brett Pardy

Brett (@AntiqueiPod) is a PhD Candidate at McGill University and a sessional instructor in Media Studies at the University of the Fraser Valley. His research studies the emotional impacts of media on learning/unlearning about individualism, racism, masculinity, and/or mental health. He is a fan of the Vancouver Canucks and films from around the world.

Founder and Past Editor

Mark Norman

Mark (@markdavidnorman) founded Hockey in Society in 2011 and was the site’s editor until January, 2021. Mark is currently a postdoctoral researcher and lecturer at McMaster University. He has a PhD from the University of Toronto, specializing in Sociology of Sport, where he also taught an undergraduate course called Hockey in Canadian Society. He is also a life-long hockey fan, cheering for the Vancouver Canucks for over three decades, and a mediocre beer league player. More info can be found at his academic website.

Contributors

Zuzana Botikova

Zuzana (@zuzinuanella) comes from Slovakia and has a PhD in sociology from the Masaryk University in Brno, Czech Republic – reuniting the former ice hockey empire, Czechoslovakia! Not only she is a big sports fan, moreover, in her academic work she focuses on the various identity processes that sport highlights in society.

Madison Danford

Madison (@maddydanford) is a PhD student in the School of Kinesiology and Health Studies at Queen’s University. She seeks to explore the nostalgic connection between whiteness, rural communities, and hockey as representative of what it means to be Canadian. Her Master’s work studied women’s ice hockey officials and gender relations in officiating. Hockey has always been a part of Madison’s life, as a player, official, coach, programmer and currently in her studies.

Martine Dennie

Martine (@MartineDennie) is a PhD Candidate in Sociology at the University of Calgary, conducting qualitative research on the playing culture of ice hockey. Her PhD research is on the legality of violence in ice hockey and specifically addresses questions of consent and assumption of risk in North American hockey leagues. The focus is on the playing culture of the sport to find out what individuals within hockey consider to be a consensual part of the game. She has a Juris Doctor from the Université de Moncton and a Master’s from Laurentian University, which touched on criminal law and violence in ice hockey.

Dan Hanoomansingh

Dan Hanoomansingh (@dan_h72) is an educator, coach, and Master’s student in the School of Kinesiology at the University of British Columbia. He is a former amateur hockey player and Hockey Canada Level 5 referee. Dan is interested in coaching, safe sport, and gender in hockey, as well as education representations of feminism, race, and colonialism in literature and media. He currently teaches high school English Language Arts, Social Studies, and Career Education in Vancouver, BC. In 2019, Dan started On-Side Mental Health, a project aimed at de-stigmatizing mental health and well-being in the ice hockey officiating community. His Master’s research is on coach education and applied data analytics in ice hockey officiating.

Shona Hickmore

Shona (@sdh0809) is a passionate hockey fan that struggles with mental illness. A social work student at the University of Calgary Edmonton Extension, Shona believes in de-stigmatizing mental illness and looking at alternative methods of achieving and maintaining wellness. During hockey season, Shona spends most of her weekends at hockey games where she feels like her best self. Her hobbies include watching hockey, learning to skate, writing, and reading.

Alvin Ma

Alvin (@alvinema)is an educator and guidance counsellor at a private high school, where he finds ways to apply his knowledge from his formal education (MSc in Exercise Sciences from the University of Toronto). Inspired by Timbits Hockey commercials from hockey broadcasts, Alvin asserts that the first goal in doing anything is having (or trying to have) fun.

Jamie Ryan

Jamie (@HockeyKilljoy) is a PhD candidate in English Literature at Queen’s University. His thesis is on women’s hockey narratives and their potential utopian possibilities. There are very few critical and creative sources on women’s hockey, so he conducted ethnographic research with a Canadian Women’s Hockey League team as well as a Professional Women’s Hockey Players Association team over the course of two seasons where he observed and interviewed players on their personal experiences in the sport.

Niya St. Amant

Niya St. Amant (@niyastamant) is a Ph.D. Candidate in the School of Kinesiology and Health Studies at Queen’s University. Her research interests include sports-related concussions, risk and injury cultures, hockey cultures, and the 2SLGBTQI+ community’s involvement in sport. Her Master’s research explored how coaches in minor league hockey responded to, perceived and took up Rowan’s Law. Her doctoral research seeks to explore how concussion legislation assumes to be universally beneficial to all athletes, neglecting the gendered experiences of racialized girls who play hockey. 

Matt Ventresca

Matt (@TheAcademyBlues) is a postdoctoral associate at the University of Calgary in the Faculty of Kinesiology where he contributes to the Integrated Concussion Research Program. His research currently focuses on the sociocultural dimensions of brain injury in sports and their connections to science, technology, and media. Matt has a PhD from Queen’s University in sport/health studies (2016) and previously worked as a postdoctoral fellow at Georgia Tech (Atlanta, USA: 2016 – 2018). He has played, researched, and worked in hockey at times in his life – including a three-year stint working at the Hockey Hall of Fame – but his current relationship with the sport is…complicated. Matt is a musician and music enthusiast who wishes he could spend even more of his time at concerts and record stores.

Translator

Barbara Ravel

Barbara Ravel (@BarbaraRavel1), PhD, is an Associate Professor in the School of Kinesiology and Health Sciences at Laurentian University. Her research focuses on gender and sexuality issues in sport. She is a former hockey player and represented France on the international stage in the late 1990s. She once shared the ice with Jayna Hefford, Vicky Sunohara, and the rest of the Brampton Thunder and lived to tell the tale.

Barbara Ravel, PhD, est professeure agrégée à École de kinésiologie et des sciences de la santé de l’Université Laurentienne. Sa recherche porte sur les questions de genre et sexualité en sport. Elle est une ancienne joueuse de hockey et a fait partie de l’Équipe de France à la fin des années 1990. Elle a aussi joué une partie contre Jayna Hefford, Vicky Sunohara et le Thunder de Brampton et a survécu à cette expérience.

Past Contributors

Sunil Agnihotri, hockey analyst for CBC Edmonton (read Sunil’s contributions here)

Simon Darnell, associate professor at University of Toronto (read Simon’s contributions here)

Vicky Grygar, law clerk (read Vicky’s contributions here)

Cheryl MacDonald, postdoctoral researcher at St. Mary’s University (read Cheryl’s contributions here)

E. Martin (Ted) Nolan, PhD student at York University and creative writer (read Ted’s contributions here)

Doo Jae Park, PhD student at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (read Doo Jae’s contributions here)

Victoria Silverwood, lecturer in Criminology and researcher (read Victoria’s contributions here)