Study Abroad

• Physiology of Altitude: Nepal May 10-June 4, 2011
• Outdoor Leadership in Peru   March 4-13, 2011
• Critical and Reflective Practices in KNH: Australia   July 6-27, 2011
• International Perspectives in Sport Psychology (to be held in 2013)

School of Education, Health, and Society

• EHS Departments
• Give to EHS
• EHS Home

Dr. Mary McDonald Position: Professor Degree: PhD - Iowa Area: Sport Studies Office: 204C Phillips Hall Phone:(513) 529-2724 Fax: (513) 529-5006 Email: mcdonamg@muohio.edu Vita: Current

Scholarly Interests

Consistent with wider movements within the academy, the past several years have witnessed the application of interdisciplinary perspectives to the critical analysis of sport. In particular, critical sport scholars have deployed a diverse array of theoretical perspectives from sociology, anthropology, women’s studies, ethnic studies, communication studies, and cultural studies among other fields to illuminate the multiple ways sport is connected to contemporary economic and social relations. My scholarship, which is broadly concerned with issues of inequality and social justice, has both emerged from and contributed to these developments. The focus of my teaching is similarly committed to helping students understand diversity and the workings of power and resistance. Indeed all the courses I currently teach in the Department of Kinesiology and Health stem from my research interests and are broadly framed around issues of power, sport, popular culture and the body within different historical and global/local contexts. Pedagogically, my goals are to broaden students' perspectives by providing alternative, critical points of view and to place students at the center of their own learning. Students in my classes are encouraged to apply interdisciplinary and disciplinary knowledge and conventions in order to deepen understanding and to question their previously "unquestioned premises" about social life, inequality and diversity. The symbiotic relationship between my scholarly and pedagogical commitments are developing in new ways as I serve a three-year joint appointment in the Western Program in the College of Arts and Sciences at Miami (2009-2012). My university and professional service efforts have also attended to the dissemination of critical perspectives concerning inequality, diversity, knowledge production and social justice. Two examples of this focus are in my on-going affiliation with the Miami University Women’s Studies Steering Committee and my contributions as the President of the North American Society for the Sociology of Sport (NASSS) including my service in helping to organize several different conferences with divergent themes that encouraged interdisciplinary dialogues.

 

Courses Taught

WST 101  Introduction to the History of Activism  

KNH 274  Critical Perspectives of the Body    

KNH 402  Critical Reflection on Practices in Health & Physical Culture

KNH 420  Internship     

WMS/KNH 4/575  Women, Gender Relations & Sport      

KNH 610   Internship (Graduate)

KNH 621   Critical Perspectives on Knowledge Systems in the Exercise, Health & Sport Studies Fields 

KNH 676  Socio-Cultural Analysis of Sport II  [S 1997-2009]