Danielle Peers

Danielle Peers, PhD, is an Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Kinesiology, Sport, and Recreation at the University of Alberta, in Treaty 6 territory. Their research builds on their experiences as a Paralympic athlete, disability sport coach, inclusive recreation practitioner, social justice activist, and dance and video artist. Their work in each of these areas often overlap, with art-based and research-creation methodologies often used to produce and share knowledges with their 2SLGBTQI+ and disability communities (see examples at www.daniellepeers.com).

Dr. Peers studies how culturally-valued movement-based activities of all kinds (including dance, recreation, and sport) can deepen, reflect, or challenge social injustice. The work centers on how movement cultures (from hockey, to round dance, to activist marches) can be used to transmit and transmute a community’s values, politics, and inequities and can play a major role in experiences of social isolation, belonging, and harm(-reduction). Working collaboratively with marginalized scholars and community leaders, as well as mainstream organizations (like the Canadian Paralympic Committee), Dr. Peers seeks to acknowledge and co-create knowledges and practices that reduce harm and create more accessible, affirming, and transformative movement cultures.