• • • Research

Kristi Allain’s research explores the various ways that power operates within physical culture in Canada, examining how Canadian media representations of sport, fitness, and physical activity affect the lives of those who participate in these athletic endeavours. Her work pays particular attention to how individuals construct, understand, and challenge dominant expressions of identity – including certain expressions of gender, ethnicity, race, age, and nation. This original and interdisciplinary research has evolved in its depth and breadth over time to its current focus today on aging masculinity, Canadian national identity, and winter sport.

With the support of a SSHRC Insight Grant and a Canada Research Chair in Physical Culture and Social Life, Dr. Allain is currently examining the experiences of older players of various winter sports. Most recently, she has published ethnographic work on expressions of masculinity among older hockey players and a theoretical piece exploring competing hockey hegemonies based on nationalism and nationhood.

Dr. Allain’s earlier work explored migrant labour in the Canadian Hockey League and Don Cherry’s Coach’s Corner segment of Hockey Night in Canada. Along with Dr. Barbara Marshall (Trent University), she received funding from a SSHRC Insight Development Grant to study how curling’s “buff turn,” epitomized by the dominance of Team Brad Jacobs during the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics, marginalized older men who curl.

Dr. Allain has also recently co-published scholarly pieces on the Toronto Raptors and the Ontario physical education curriculum, among others.

Dr. Allain speaks to the media as an expert on subjects such as hockey, curling, national identity, and Don Cherry, and has been interviewed by outlets such as The CBC, The Hockey News, The Washington Post, Christian Science Monitor, and the Huffington Post.