• • • Bio

Kristi Allain is an Associate Professor of Sociology and the Canada Research Chair in Physical Culture and Social Life at St. Thomas University in Fredericton, NB.  Her work is deeply embedded in her social and geographic locations and scholarly training.

Allain’s research identifies relationships between expressions of gender, Canadian national identity, winter sport, and aging. She explores these topics through case studies in sport celebrities such as Sidney Crosby, Alexander Ovechkin, Don Cherry, and Brad Jacobs. Her ethnographic work has also examined the experiences of various other athletes, from Eastern and Central European players in the Canadian Hockey League, to older men who curl (both recreationally and on a provincial or national level), to old-timer hockey players.

Allain developed expertise in the study of Canada while completing her PhD in Canadian Studies at Trent University’s Frost Centre for Canadian Studies and Indigenous Studies. After working as a part-time instructor in the Sociology Department at Trent, she joined the Department of Sociology at St. Thomas University in Fredericton, NB in 2014 in the position of Assistant Professor.

Allain take pride in her teaching. Students in her classrooms are taught the importance of critical thinking and unpacking common-sense understandings of their social worlds. Here she encourages students to recognize their own social positions and the ways that privilege operates in their lives and the lives of others. In an effort to increase understanding and engagement with their own social worlds, she urges students to use the insights gleaned in their sociology classes and apply them to their own lives.

Allain’s sociological work informs her advocacy and activism, both within and beyond the academy. She has published popular articles on issues of gender and racial equity within the university and have taken on a leadership role in various community and social action groups, including The New Brunswick Coalition for Tenants’ Rights, Solidarité Fredericton Solidarity, and the Migrant Workers in the Canadian Maritimes partnership. Her activities in these groups include planning public events, lobbying federal and provincial governments for policy changes, and writing/co-writing op-eds and reports about important social issues.