As a kinesiology student, Janelle Joseph was struck by how much of the sport and health research she encountered focused on mainstream events, physiological experiments and elite athletic performance without paying attention to the barriers people face.
Brock University Associate Professor of Health Sciences and Sport Management Janelle Joseph has been named the Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Racial Justice, Health and Sport.
Now a researcher herself, she says she's determined to build a "different curriculum" that expands sport research to embrace studies of health and wellness among people of many races, backgrounds and abilities who may find themselves relegated to the sidelines.
As Brock University's new Tier 1 Canada Research Chair (CRC) in Racial Justice, Health and Sport, Joseph is focused on fulfilling her long-held dream by researching how community leaders create sport and movement activities to address health disparities linked to racism and other forms of injustice.
"Our sport and recreation systems make so many assumptions about what people can and can't do or who is or isn't fit," says the Associate Professor of Health Sciences and Sport Management. "I'm interested in how ideas of fit bodies and minds are tied to belonging and merit."
Joseph, who is the former co-president of the Black Canadian Studies Association, aims to connect Black health and sport organizations and Black Studies scholars across Canada.
"Dr. Joseph is an international leader in transformative equity and decolonial studies," says Vice-President, Research Tim Kenyon. "At the intersections of racial justice, health and sport, Dr. Joseph is illuminating ideas about leadership that have nurtured holistic well-being here and in many parts of the world."
Joseph was one of 259 new and renewed CRCs announced Wednesday, Oct. 22 by Mélanie Joly, Minister of Industry and Minister Responsible for Canada Economic Development for Quebec Regions. Also announced was the renewal of Associate Professor of Kinesiology Val Fajardo's CRC in Tissue Remodelling and Plasticity Throughout the Lifespan.
Brock has 13 Canada Research Chairs all nationally recognized experts in their respective fields who contribute knowledge, understanding and solutions to society.
Funding from the Canada Foundation for Innovation's John R. Evans Leaders Fund to support Joseph and Fajardo's lab infrastructure was also included in Wednesday's announcement.
"Improving the health and well-being of everyone in this country is a top priority for the Canadian government," says St. Catharines Member of Parliament Chris Bittle. "Dr. Joseph's work will generate and share a wealth of ideas on how we can all meet this goal."
Black communities are healing themselves, says Joseph, "but little attention has been paid to the physical activity, outdoor leisure, sport, mindfulness, nutrition and food security initiatives being set up in those communities. My research addresses these gaps."
Joseph is examining how community leaders combine three concepts when creating fitness and health community programming:
- Black liberation, which focuses on confronting racism and prioritizing joy, safety and self-sufficiency.
- Embodied knowledge, or the awareness of one's bodily sensations and movements.
- Relational well-being, a concept she says is grounded in the South African philosophy of "ubuntu," which can be translated as "I am because we are" and recognizes that individual health is connected to larger social networks.
"The focus on Black health is often relegated to physiological processes and deficit thinking," says Joseph. "What I want to know is how we sustain health in racialized communities. What difference does movement make to well-being and leadership?"
Through one of her projects, Joseph says she aims to develop networks, enhance skills and facilitate storytelling about Black healing by documenting "the expansive dreaming of Black health leaders and entrepreneurs currently transforming bodies and wellness."
She also plans to establish the Nyansapo Research-Creation Embodiment Studio and Kokuromotie Gathering Collaboratory at Brock. In the Twi language of Ghana, nyansapo means wisdom while kokuromotie means co-operation.
In these two facilities, she will build teams of post-doctoral fellows and research assistants who will conduct a variety of activities including:
- Workshops with social justice leaders from across the Americas and the Global South exploring how trauma shows up in bodies and relationships, how to enhance leadership skills and how to nurture Black art, sport and storytelling.
- Dance, yoga, strength training and other forms of movement captured in multi-media digital storytelling to be created by the Brock and Niagara communities
- Community cooking initiatives to address food insecurity and raise awareness of the role of culture in nutrition and well-being.
Joseph is also the founder of Brock's Indigeneity, Diaspora, Equity and Anti-racism in Sport (IDEAS) Research lab.
In her research, she draws upon a wealth of knowledge including her experiences with marathon running, cricket and capoeira an Afro-Brazilian martial art and game and her work with racialized communities and sport tourism in Australia and New Zealand, known in the Maori language as Aotearoa.
"My physical activity experiences have taught me to be curious about how societal power operates in and through the body," she says.
