University of Toronto

Margaret MacNeill Associate Professor Mailing address: Faculty of Physical Education and Health 55 Harbord Street, RM 328 Toronto, ON, Canada. M5S 2W6 416-978-0598

Office Address/Active Health Media Lab: 40 Sussex, Room 201 Active Health Media Lab: 40 Sussex, Room 203 margaret.macneill@utoronto.ca

Academic Positions

• Associate Professor, Faculty of Physical Education and Health
• Graduate Department of Exercise Sciences, School of Graduate Studies
• Cross Appointment, Dalla Lana School of Public Health,  Faculty of Medicine
• Executive Committee Collaborative Graduate Program in Women’s Health,  UT/Women’s College Hospital Research Institute
• Former Director, Centre for Girls’ and Women’s Health and Physical Activity Research (2002-2005)

Academic Honours:

• International Fellow of the American Academy of Kinesiology and Physical Education, 2006
• Sociology of  Sport Journal Award, 1997
• International Folio Award for Science Editing, 1994

Academic Background:

• Ph.D. (1994):  Faculty of  Applied Sciences, Department of Communication (currently named the School of Communication), Simon Fraser University
• M.A. (1986): Faculty of Physical Education (Currently named the School of Kinesiology and Health Studies), Queen's University
• B.P.H.E. (1984): School of Physical and Health Education (Currently named the Faculty of Physical Education and Health), University of Toronto.

Areas of Expertise:

• Health communication
• Health & physical literacy
• Visual media methodologies
• Critical policy studies of public health
• Cultural studies of  gender and health
• Social marketing of  active healthy living
• Youth sport and fitness audiences studies   
• Critical and cultural studies of sport media
• Olympic television production ethnographies
• Athletes' rights and relationships with the media
• Post-structuralist, postcolonial and feminist methodologies
• Sociology and cultural studies of sport, fitness and physical activity

Research Advisory Boards:

• Centre for Physical Activity, Sport and Health Research, New York
• Tri-Campus Women  and Gender Studies Network, UT
• Collaborative Graduate Program in Women’s Health, UT and Women’s College Hospital Research Institute, Executive Committee Member
• Living Schools Initiative,  Ontario Health and PE Association

Professional Affiliations and Memberships:

• American Academy of Kinesiology and PE
• Canadian Communication Association
• Canadian Public Health Association
• Centre for Canadian Sport Policy Studies
• Centre for Health Promotion: The  Health Communication Unit, UT
• Centre for Women and Girl's Health and Physical Activity Research, UT
• International Association for Sociology of Sport
• International Communication Association, Health Communication Division
• Ontario Physical and Health Education Association
• Ontario Public Health Association
• Physical and Health Education Canada
• North American Society for the Sociology of Sport
• Women's Sport International

Research Approach and Philosophy:
My approach to research is based in critical cultural studies, an interdisciplinary network of approaches that is attentive to the production of cultures of health and in/activity,  power, and how cultural meanings are spun within human relations. This network includes media studies, semiology, sociology of the body, anthropology, post-colonial studies, history,  feminist studies of gender,  and political economy. The aims of my applied research  are to:
(1) study the relationship between health and in/activity at a socio-cultural level;
(2) develop a comprehensive understanding of the full cycle of cultural production, dissemination, and consumption of active health knowledge and practice;
(3) engage in related advocacy for program and policy intervention; and
(4) to engage with and disseminate findings to academic, professional and lay audiences.  

Current Research Projects:
Long Live Kids: An Evaluation of an Industry Initiative to Promote Health, Physical Activity and Media Literacy.  Research co-investigators:  Dr. Guy Faulkner (UT), Michelle Brownrigg (Active Living Canada),  Dr. Margaret MacNeill (UT, Principal investigator). Funded by Canadian Institutes of Health Research: Institutes of Nutrition, Metabolism and Diabetes; Population and Public Health; and Aboriginal People’s Health.

Living Schools: Transforming School Communities into Active Cultures. Research co-investigators: Dr. Gail McVey (Sick Kids Hospital), Jennifer Cowie Bonne (OPHEA), Dr. Margaret MacNeill (UT). Funded by OPHEA and Ministry of Education. 

Measuring Participation in Canadian Sport.  Co-investigators:  Dr. Peter Donnelly (P.I.), Dr. Bruce Kidd (UT), Dr. Margaret  MacNeill (UT), Dr. Jean Harvey (UOttawa), Dr. Caroline.Toohey (Australia), Dr. Barry Houlihan (UK). Funded by the Social Sciences and Research Council of Canada.

Canadian Youth  Understandings of  Health and Fitness. Research co-investigators: Geneviève Rail (P.I., University of Ottawa), Margaret MacNeill (University of Toronto), Natalie Beausoleil (Memorial University), Lisette Burrows (University of Otago), Janice Wright (University of Wollongong, Australia). Funded by Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.

Publications:
(In Press).MacNeill, M., & Rail, G.  The Visions, Voices and Moves of Young ‘Canadians’: Exploring Diversity, Subjectivity and Cultural Constructions of Fitness and Health. In J. Wright (Ed.). Living Physical Activity: Young People, Physical Activity and the Everyday. London: Routledge.
(In Press). Hayhurst, L., MacNeill, M., & Frisby, W. A Postcolonial Approach to Sport, Gender and Development. In B. Houlihan and M. Green (Eds.). Handbook of Sport Development. London: Routledge.         
(In Press). Wensing, E., & MacNeill, M.  Gender Differences in Canadian English-language Newspaper Coverage of the 2004 Olympic Games. In T. Bruce, J. Hovden, & P. Markula (Eds.), Missing in Action: Media Coverage of Women at the 2004 Olympic Games. pp. 181-192.  Rotterdam, Boston, Taipei: Sense Publishers. 
2009.  MacNeill, M. Opening Up the Gendered Gaze: Sport Media Representations of  Women, National Identity and Racialized Gaze. In P. Markula (Ed), Olympic Women and the Media: International Perspectives, 50-69.  London: Palgrave.
2009/2001. MacNeill, M., Donnelly, P., Knight, G. Corporate Training: Identity Construction, Preparation for the Sydney Olympic Games, and Relationships between Canadian Media, Swimmers and Sponsors, Olympika, X, pp. 1-32.  RP in J. Jauright and S. Pope (Eds.),  The New Sport Management Reader, 401-427. Morgantown, WV: Fitness  Information Technology, Western Virginia University.
2007.   Knight, G.,  Neverson, N.,  MacNeill, M. (PI), Donnelly, P. The weight of expectation: Cathy Freeman, Legacy, Reconciliation and the Sydney Olympics – A Canadian Perspective, The International Journal of the History of Sport, 24(10), 1243-1263.
2006.   MacNeill, M.  Sport Media and Reproducing Identities, Brazilian Journal of Sport Sciences. Estudos de Midia Do Esporte E A (Re)Producao de Identidades, Revista Brasileira de Ciencias do Esporte, 28(1), Sept. 2006, 9-38.
2005.  Greenberg, J. Knight, G. Donnelly, P., MacNeill, M. Negotiated Order and Strategic Inaction in Television Coverage of the Olympics. In D. Pawluch, W. Shaffir, C. Miall (Eds.), Doing Ethnography: Studying Everyday Life. Toronto: Canadian Scholars Press.
2005.  Knight, G., Donnelly, P., MacNeill, M. The Disappointment Games: Narratives of Olympic Failure in Canada and New Zealand. International Review for the Sociology of Sport, 40(1), 25-51.
2002. MacNeill, M. Inner city youths, activity patterns, health beliefs and interpretive relations with the media, Journal of Urban Health, p. S124, 79(4). 
2001. MacNeill, M., Donnelly, P., Knight, G. Corporate Training: Identity Construction, Preparation for the Sydney Olympic Games, and Relationships between Canadian Media, Swimmers and Sponsors, Olympika, X, pp. 1-32.
2001. MacNeill, M. Canadian Culture, Sports and the Politics of Identity, Iichiko Inter-cultural Journal, 69, pp. 116-127, Winter 2001.
2000. MacNeill, M., Donnelly, P., & Knight, G. Canadian Identities and Media Production of the Sydney Olympics, Media Review, Fall web edition.
2000. MacNeill, M., Donnelly, P., & Knight, G. Competing Identities: Canadian Athletic and Media Preparations for the 2000 Summer Olympics, International Olympic Studies Symposium Proceedings. Sydney: University of New South Wales and International Centre for Olympic Studies.
2000.  MacNeill, M. Media, Activity and Youth Consumption, World Summit 2000: Youth, Children & Media. Toronto: CD-Rom proceedings.
1999. MacNeill, M. Social Marketing, Gender and the Science of Fitness: A Case Study of  ParticipACTION Campaigns, in P. White and K. Young's (Ed's), Sport and Gender in Canada, pp.215-231. Toronto: Oxford University Press.
1998. MacNeill, M. Sports Journalism Ethics: Ethics and Olympics Athletes' Rights. In L. Wenner (Ed), MediaSport: Cultural Sensibilities and Sport In the Media Age, pp.100-115. London: Routledge.
1998. MacNeill, M. Sex, Lies and Videotape: The Cultural and Political Economies of Celebrity Fitness Videos, in G. Rail and J. Harvey's (eds.), Sport and Postmodern Times: Culture, Gender, Sexuality, the Body and Sport, pp.163-184. New York: Suny Press.
1998. MacNeill, M. Sport-media Relationships: Basic Rights & Responsibilities of Athletes and Coaches, in Robertson (Ed.), A media guide for athletes and their coaches: Making the most of your opportunities. Ottawa: CAAWS/Sport Canada, pp. 73-74.
1997. MacNeill, M. Athlete-Media Relationships: National Team Member Rights and Responsibilities, Athletes' Can Forum Proceedings. St. Sauveur, Quebec: Athletes' Can.
1996. MacNeill, M. North American Vitality: Marketing Self-Help and Physical Culture in the Twentieth Century, Studies in Physical Culture and Tourism, 4, pp.7-19.
1996. MacNeill, M. Networks: An Ethnography of CTV's Production of 1988 Winter Olympic Ice Hockey Tournament, Sociology of Sport Journal, 13, 103-124.
1995. MacNeill, M. Olympic Power Plays: Televisual Labour and the Social Use of Technology, Journal of International Communication, 2(1), 42-65.
1995. MacNeill, M. Sports Journalism: An Oxymoron in the Age of Marketing?, pp. 5-6, Media Forum Report. Ottawa: Canadian Centre for Drug-Free Sport.
1994/1988 MacNeill, M.  "Ideology, Media and Images of Active Women", reprinted in Women, Sport and Culture, pp.273-287. Edited by S. Birrell and C. Cole. Champaign, Il.: Human Kinetics. *Reprint of 1988 chapter in J. Harvey and H. Cantelon's (eds.), Not Just A Game. Ottawa: University of Ottawa Press.    
1992. MacNeill, M. "Made in Canada: Producing Olympic Hockey for a National Television Audience", in O. Penz and Horak (eds.), Sport Consumption: An International Anthology, pp.37-58. Austria: Verlag Fur Gelsellschaftskriik.

Keynote Addresses:
2005. MacNeill, M. S/he blinded me with science: Power, knowledge and women’s health, keynote presented to the Centre for Research in Women’s Health Research Day, May 17, 2005, Toronto.
2004.  MacNeill, M. Post-Identity Studies: Representation and Critical Media Studies, keynote address to the Annual Conference of the North American Society for the Sociology of Sport, Tuscon, Arizona. Nov. 2004.
2004. MacNeill, M. Wrestling with identity: A case study of competing nationalisms mediating Olympic media-sponsor-athlete relations, 2004 PreOlympic Scientific Congress, Sociology of Sport Section, Tessanloniki, Greece, Aug. 6-11.
2004. MacNeill, M. (April 2004). Interdisciplinary  Community Based Research, keynote panel, Interdisciplinary Health Sciences Graduate Student Conference, University of Toronto, Toronto: May 8-9, 2004.
2001    MacNeill, M. Ethnography, Sport Media Studies and Interdisciplinarity, Alberta Roundtable for the Socio-cultural Study of sport and Physical Activity, University of Calgary and Calgary Institute for the Humanities. 
2000.  MacNeill, M. The power to move:  Youth, activity and their relationships with the media,  OPHEA Spring Health Conference, Toronto.

Select Invited Presentations:
2008. MacNeill, M. Biopedagogy and Youth Constructions of Fitness, Bioethics and Obesity Roundtable,  Joint Centre for Bioethics, University of Toronto.
2007.  MacNeill, M. The Effects of Media Coverage on Sports Participation, Sport Measurement Roundtable,  Inaugural Sport Canada Research Initiative Conference. Nov 21-23, 2007. Gatineau, Quebec.
2006. MacNeill, M.Media Research and Health Scares, Pandemics and the Media: Global Health Challenges, 1st Annual Global Health Summer Institute, Public Health Sciences, Faculty of Medicine.
2004.   MacNeill, M. Youth Media, Identity and Interdisciplinary Ethnographic Research, De/Re/Constructions of  Health: An International Roundtable about Poststructuralist Approaches to Research,  Agora de la dance, Montreal, Quebec.
2004. MacNeill, M. Probability, Pathology and Panic: Confronting Media Discourses of Risk and Obesity, panel presentation of  The Politics of Obesity Conference, (Host organizer) Sept. 7-8, 2004; Toronto.
2003. MacNeill, M. Understanding Media Response to SARS. Learning from SARS: Challenges for Public Health,  Symposium hosted by the  Centre for International Health, Faculty of Medicine, UT and Health Canada. Toronto.
2003. MacNeill, M. and Hershfield, L. Understanding Media Response to SARS, Learning from SARS: Challenges for Public Health,  Symposium hosted by the  Centre for International Health, Faculty of Medicine, UT and Health Canada: Toronto.
2003. MacNeill, M. Invited participant in “Media Education Theory and Practice”,  National Telemedia Conference: International Tele-Conference. Much Music simocast in London, New York, Toronto, Madison, Seattle.
2003. MacNeill, M. “Cultivating relationships with the media”, invited presentation and panel facilitation: 90 minute workshop,  Health and Fitness Across the Lifespan: Proceedings of the CPTN Annual Personal Trainer Conference. (Toronto, ON).
2002.   Producing Canada: Athlete-media-sponsor relations and the politics of identity at the Sydney Olympic Games. Visiting scholar address to School of Human Kinetics, University of British Columbia,  Graduate seminar series.
2002    Building bridges with media: Dealing with gendered coverage, National Conference on Women, Sport and Physical Activity, Hamilton.

Conference/Symposia  Host Organizer:  

• 2005. Sexual Harassment in Sport in Recreation Roundtable, Centre for Girls’ and Women’s Health and Physical Activity,  co-hosted with Status of Women’s Office, University of Toronto.
• 2004. The Politics of Obesity,   Centre for Girls’ and Women’s Health and Physical Activity, co-hosted with Canadian Sport Policy Centre,  University of Toronto.
• 2004. Bone Health Summit, Centre for Girls’ and Women’s Health and Physical Activity, University of Toronto.
• 2003. Girls In/Action Conference,   Centre for Girls’ and Women’s Health and Physical Activity, University of Toronto.
• 1997. Annual Conference for the North American Association for the Sociology of Sport, Toronto. 

Teaching Philosophy:
In my courses I employ critical pedagogy and problem-based learning  to link current knowledge about the relationship between health and physical activity with research and professional practice.  Overall, my approach to teaching is a student-centered and interdisciplinary pursuit. It integrates the critical pedagogy of Henry Giroux, Paulo Friere and Peter McLaren with antiracist, postcolonial feminist praxis. Critical pedagogy seeks to engage students as critical theorists and active citizens. The knowledge base and application is mediated by concerns for human rights to health and activity, social justice, tolerance and respect for difference, and a celebration of the soulful pleasure of individual and collective movement. It requires students to question the epistemological basis of research approaches and knowledge in our field which, in turn, challenges students to understand themselves as human agents, as both a product and producer of meaning, practice and cultural institutions. In pursuing critical pedagogy, literacies are developed, including:  knowledge-based, cultural, emotional, physical, health,  and science based literacies.

Undergraduate Teaching Responsibilities: 

• PHE 102: Physical Activity, Health and the Social-Sciences (required)
• PHE 402: Physical Activity, Health and the Media (optional)
• PHE 390 and 490: Directed Research courses (optional)

Graduate Teaching Responsibilities: 

• JXP 5807: Health Communication (joint course with Dalla Lana School of Public, Faculty of Medicine, Exercise Sciences, and the Health Communication Unit of the Centre for Health Promotion).
• EXS 7001: Reading courses in post-structuralist theories of the body, critical media studies, health communication, critical public health, visual methodologies,  sport  and cultural studies.
• CHL 5109: Gender and Health (gender and visual methodologies section in core course for the Collaborative Graduate Program in Women's Health).

Graduate Research Supervision:
PhD In Progress
Hayhurst, Lyndsay.  (2007-present). Development through sport, social justice and girl’'s health. SSHRC Doctoral Fellow;  Exercise Sciences and Collaborative Graduate Program in Women's Health; Lupina Junior Doctoral Fellow, Munk Centre for International Studies;Co-supervision with Dr. Bruce Kidd.
MSc in Progress
Szto, Courtney. (2009-present). Girls and Development Through Sport.
Trotter, Kathleen (2009-present). Gender and Physical Cultural Studies of Fitness.
PhD Awarded
Darnell, Simon (2009).  Changing the World Through Sport and Play: A Post-colonial Analysis of Canadian Volunteers Within the ‘Sport for Development and Peace’ Movement. SSHRC Doctoral Fellow.
Norman, Moss (Ted). (2009).  Living in the Shadow of an Epidemic: The Discursive Construction of Boys and Their Bodies.  
Petherick. LeAnne (2008). Curriculum, Pedagogy and Embodied Experience: The Re/production of Health Discourse in Grade 9 Health and Physical Education.

MSc Awarded
Ptolemy, Margaret. (1999). A postmodern exploration of the discourse(s) of childhood and how they produce the active child’s body: A case study of Toronto Parks and Recreation documents.
Herskowitz, Amy.  (2001). Bodily discursions in a byte-size reality: A critical analysis of women’s discussions about their bodies and ‘eating disorders’ on the Something Fishy website.
Armstrong, Sally. (2001). Human Rights, Human Wrongs: A comparison of Canadian and Afghani girls’ access to health services and physical activity. 
Unan, Jane. (2003). Colonizing Movement: Exercise and the (Re)Production of Whiteness.
Kumar, Nikki. (2005). Fitting In/Activity: A qualitative exploration of second generation Indo-Canadian adolescent girls and their gendered bodies in physical activity. MSc also part of the Collobaborative Graduate Program in Women and Gender Studies.
D’Aloisio, Julia. (2006). A critical analysis of breast cancer fundraising runs.  SSHRC funded.
Shane, Lindsay. (2009). The Cycling Body and Transgressing City Spaces.  Co-supervised with Dr. Caroline Fusco. 
Razack, Sabrina. (2009). Women's Cricket Spaces: An Examination of Female Players’ Experiences in Canada. Co-supervised with Dr Caroline Fusco.  

Other Activities: 
Workshop provider for community, public health, school and professional groups: media and health literacy,  inclusive kindergym, wellness, step aerobics,  and PNF stretching workshops.