Mark Norman
Born and raised in Vancouver, Dr. Mark Norman called Toronto and Hamilton home for over 20 years before moving with his family to Antigonish. His academic and professional career has been a winding one: after completing a Bachelor of Arts in History and English from University in Toronto (2005), he worked in government for nearly three years before returning to school to pursue a Master’s degree in International Studies at Simon Fraser University (completed in 2009). His MA project focused on sport as a peacebuilding tool in post-conflict and divided societies, a topic which launched his interest in sociology of sport. He returned to University in Toronto to undertake a PhD in the Faculty of Kinesiology and Physical Education (completed in 2015), producing a thesis that examined the history and social meanings of sport and physical culture in Canadian prisons.
Since graduating, Dr. Norman has worked as a project manager at the Centre for Sport Policy Studies at University of Toronto, postdoctoral fellow at McMaster University and Memorial University of Newfoundland, and sessional instructor at McMaster University, Toronto Metropolitan University, and University of Toronto. Dr. Norman has received numerous accolades for his research, including a SSHRC Post-Doctoral Fellowship and graduate paper awards from both the North American Society for the Sociology of Sport and International Sociology of Sport Association. In 2022, Dr. Norman was named a Research Fellow of the North American Society for the Sociology of Sport.
Dr. Norman’s research sits at the intersection of sociology, criminology, and the critical study of health and sport. His diverse areas of research expertise include sport, physical culture, and incarceration; sport and social change, including Sport for Development and Peace and sport and crime prevention; and occupational experiences and health in criminal justice work. Dr. Norman has published research in leading sociocultural journals of sport and health—including Sociology of Sport Journal, International Review for the Sociology of Sport, and Qualitative Research in Sport, Exercise & Health—and broader journals in the social sciences—including Feminist Criminology, Annals of Leisure Research, and Gender, Work & Organization. In 2023, he concluded a SSHRC-funded study on sport and youth custody. Dr. Norman is also committed to public sociology and knowledge translation, and in 2019 served as an invited expert on sport and crime prevention at a United Nations Office of Drugs and Crime Committee meeting in Bangkok, Thailand. Dr. Norman is currently co-investigator on a SSHRC-funded project focused on policing and surveillance of recreation spaces during COVID-19 lockdowns.
Selected Publications
Norman, M. (accepted). Prison sport and the Sustainable Development Goals: Insights from research on physical culture in Canadian prisons. In J. Rookwood & M. Holmes (Eds.), Sport, Development and Peace: Critical Global Challenges. Palgrave.
Norman, M., Sonoda, J., & Ricciardelli, R. (2024). Sport, physical activity, and young people who are incarcerated: A scoping review. Youth Justice: DOI: 14732254231220594.
Norman, M., Silva, D., Kennedy, L., & Cipolli III, W. (2024). ‘Essential for the soul’?: Leisure as a flashpoint during COVID-19 lockdowns in Ontario, Canada. Annals of Leisure Research, 27(1), 167-186.
Norman, M., Clifford, A. G., & Henry, R. (2023). Sport for Development and decolonization in a settler colonial state: Physical culture in the iives of Indigenous Peoples incarcerated in Canadian prisons. Sociology of Sport Journal, 40(2), 153-162.
Norman, M., Ricciardelli, R., & Maier, K. (2023). Gender, risk, and presentation of self in “caring” prison work: Insights from institutional parole officers in Canada. Gender, Work & Organization, 30(6), 2086-2101.
Norman, M., & Smith, T. (2023). Sport and crime prevention in Canada: Examining discourses of risk, responsibility, and development through sport. In A. Parker & H. Morgan (Eds.), Sport, Physical Activity and Criminal Justice: Politics, Policy and Practice (pp. 51-65). Routledge.
To view more of Dr. Norman’s publications, please visit his Google Scholar page.
