Patricia Vertinsky

Western perspectives on sport in Japan have tended to overlook running as a manifestation of a unique set of features influenced by environment and cultural attitudes. Running is exhibited through a variety of cultural displays in events, competitions, and training philosophies, with the runner embodying a system of performativity relevant to his or her cultural context. This offers us an opportunity to explore Japanese running culture by considering the cultural context which has encouraged, supported and enticed Japan’s proclivity for long- distances running. The lacuna of historical works concerning the social and cultural considerations related to Japanese running culture elicits an invitation to revisit Japanese sporting traditions through the experiences of Canadian athletes, as they navigate the Japanese running cultural context. Ekiden racing particularly embodies these sentiments: it is a long distance, multistage relay running event, invented in Japan which is credited with being responsible for propelling a national long-distance ‘running craze’. Despite its popularity in Japan, and the fact that international elite athletes are selected and invited to participate in these events, there has been little academic study of the sport of Ekiden racing. We know even less about the experiences of those who lived, trained and competed in a running event steeped in Japanese culture and tradition. Ekiden racing has become particularly alluring to numerous elite Canadian athletes who are attracted by this challenge to participate in a distinctive running culture revered by the Japanese. My study examines Ekiden racing through a transcontinental lens, in particular through the eyes of two elite Canadian runners who were invited to compete in Japanese elite running events. Sue Lee participated in Japan from 1990-1992, and Jeff Schiebler between 1996 and 2005. This study is designed to trace the experiences of two elite Canadian athletes in the Japanese running context and has encouraged me to revisit aspects of running culture from two main perspectives: 1) An exploration of the origins and cultural significance of long-distance running in the Japanese context, and 2) The ways in which Canadian runners have experienced Japanese running culture.

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The aim of this study is to examine the transnational flows of physical cultures,particularly physical education, yoga, and modern dance, between India and the West during theearly decades of the 20th century. I develop two case studies where individuals became involvedin circulating dance and physical education practices between India, Western Europe and theUnited States, illuminating how colonial powers conceived of European modernity in oppositionto and in conjunction with the ‘Orient’ and how Indian nationalists developed a monolithiccultural identity along rigid lines of the nation state.The first case study examines how the YMCA (‘Y’) brought American sport and physicaleducation; particularly ideas around Muscular Christianity, to India in the form of missionarywork. It focuses primarily on the efforts of the physical educator Harry Crowe Buck, who arrivedin India in 1920 to direct the YMCA School of Physical Education in Madras. The second caseexamines the career of Indian modern dancer Uday Shankar (1900-1977), and his involvement inshaping Western ideas around Oriental dance and Indian culture in the 1930s. It also considershis reception in India where he received harsh condemnation from the public because hisperformances were not sufficiently grounded in Indian dance traditions.Drawing from studies in postcolonial and physical cultural theory, this thesis pays specialattention to the areas of Indian physical education and modern dance during the late colonialperiod. Physical cultures warrant attention for their importance in shaping colonial andnationalist thought, as the body became critically important in the ‘articulation of imperialideologies and in the often-fraught dynamics of cross-cultural contact’, particularly in shapingideas around gender roles, race relations and national identity in India and the West, thatpersisted beyond the colonial period. In my arguments, I employ Edward Said’s contrapuntal approach, which involves examining documents with an awareness of the complex social, political and cultural circumstances that underlie them. This approach influences how the case studies are written, as I pay explicit attention to the contexts of British imperialism and Indian cultural nationalism, and the ways they intersected during the early 20th century.

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The inclusion of migration as a predictor of health is seen as a significant advancement in Canadian health research. However, further investigation concerning the health outcomes of different immigrant groups has been suggested, especially refugees whose health statuses may be lower than voluntary migrants (Vang et al., 2015). Physical inactivity has been reported by the female immigrant population as a result of migration stressors and barriers to participation in Western communities. With a specific focus on Syrian refugee women, this study used a feminist interpretive approach to examine their health and physical activity needs as they settle into Canadian society. The purpose was to examine how their views and lifestyles have been influenced by their integration into Western culture as well as to determine the roles of settlement-related support systems in this transition. Using qualitative research methods, Syrian women who have recently settled in the Metro Vancouver region (n=11,
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The aim of this study is to explore the modern history of prison physical culture in order to better understand how perceptions of the muscular criminal male body have influenced the construction of prison physical culture and opportunities for physical activity in American correctional institutions. My focus on the recent weight lifting ban in the United States is designed to appraise how criminological knowledge of the muscular criminal male body has influenced penal policy over time. Through a selection of specific historical episodes in prison physical culture from the late 18th century to current correctional practice I evaluate the complicated interplay between penology, criminology, somatotyping, politics, prison physical culture and the enactment of the legal ban on prison weight lifting in 1994. Working from a critical socio-historical perspective this study intends to add to the limited knowledge of prison physical culture, research on physical activity in correctional facilities and attitudes toward the corporeal experience of those confined to prison. My study has been guided by the following research questions: 1) how have historical perceptions of the muscular criminal body developed, and in turn, influenced penal policy over time? In particular, what have been the influences of body profiling and somatotyping on the role of inmate’s weight lifting in prisons?; 2) in light of this, how can we better understand the reasoning behind the enactment of the 1994 weight lifting ban placed on prison physical culture within the United States?; 3) what have been the effects of the weight lifting ban on contemporary prison physical culture? This study is an interdisciplinary project which utilizes qualitative methodologies in the collection and analysis of documents and resources from kinesiology, criminology, anthropometry, and penology. Critical discourse analysis framed by Gee (1999, 2006) and Foucauldian perspectives on discipline, punishment and power provide the framework for my analysis of prison physical culture over time and place.

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After an international judging scandal at the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics, International Skating Union (ISU) officials introduced an entirely new system for judging figure skating performances. With the goal of increasing the objectivity and transparency in the judging process substantive changes occurred in the performance requirements and evaluation criteria for all skaters. Focusing on the ice dance discipline, the purpose of this research was to analyze ice dancers’ movement practices and the ways in which they have been influenced by the new judging system. Additional analysis also considered the role of gender in ice dancers’ potentially changed practices. With these goals in mind, I draw upon Massus’s (1973) notion around ‘techniques of the body’ and Bourdieu’s (1992) concept of ‘habitus’, which suggest that by looking at the movement practices of ice dancers we can see how they are influenced by the social relations in which they are embedded, including historical and cultural traditions, and by authoritative groups such as the ISU. Considering the role of gender in ice dancers’ movement practices, I also examine the social construction of masculinity and femininity in skaters’ movements and how these embodied gendered practices are influenced by the new judging system. Furthermore, using Foucauldian theories of power, normalization, rank, and self-regulation I explore how ice dancers are disciplined into performing particular movement practices, performance narratives and skating styles and the ways in which they are reinforced. Data collection included a documentary analysis of the ISU judging system focusing on the technical rules in regard to the ice dance discipline as well as semi-structured interviews with figure skating experts and skaters themselves. Interviews with the skaters also included a video analysis component on one of their competitive performances. The findings revealed the dramatic changes in ice dancers’ movement practices under the new judging system and how these changed practices have contributed to a more athletic discipline where there is now a strong focus on technical requirements. Additionally, the findings highlighted the conservative and stereotypical displays of gender in skaters’ movement practices and performance narratives, which continue to prevail under the new judging system.

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