103. Telling a Story Through Research with Sports Sociologist Andrea Bundon

103. Telling a Story Through Research with Sports Sociologist Andrea Bundon

Introducing Andrea Bundon

Today I’m talking to sports sociologist Dr. Andrea Bundon about telling a story through research.

Her Career Journey

Andrea earned her BSc in kinesiology from the University of Calgary. Wanting to stay in an academic setting, she went on to earn her MA and PhD, both also in kinesiology, from the University of British Columbia. During this time, she began guiding visually impaired skiers training nearby and served as a guide at the 2010 and 2014 Paralympics. In her current role as assistant professor of kinesiology at the University of British Columbia, she studies the intersections of sport, physical activity, disability and social inclusion.

Telling a Story Through Research

When Andrea became involved with guiding visually impaired skiers and went to the Paralympics, she was struck by the inequities in participation between men and women at the games. She structured her PhD and the rest of her career around telling this story through her research, looking at the ways that athletes with disabilities have to advocate for their careers every single day of their lives. Her work has helped the field of para-sport research expand into sociology and qualitative research because they still need to understand the societal aspects in addition to the biomechanics and sport science.

Inside this episode:

  • Andrea didn’t even fully consider becoming a professor until the last year of her PhD. She talks about how students, including herself, have trouble imagining a career when so much of it is not visible to them.
  • She chose kinesiology because it is a multi-disciplinary career. She always loved sports and became a guide for visually impaired skiers while a grad student and ended up shaping her research around these experiences.
  • As a guide, Andrea saw how similar para-athlete’s experiences were to her own, including training and the competitions they both attended, but also how different they were. She learned that athletes with disabilities are always advocates, just by participating in sports, and used her research to shine a spotlight on how they are excluded by the existing systems.
  • During her post-doc, Andrea studied how athletes used blogging and new media to connect with one another, living up to “the promise of the internet” but also highlighted the flip side, stating that places like Twitter are not always the safest.
  • At the 2010 Paralympic Games, Andrea saw, firsthand, how few women compete in the Paralympics compared to men. She describes the loopholes and lack of development pathways that prevent more women from reaching the highest levels of sport.
  • As an academic with a largely flexible schedule, she has needed to learn to identify tasks that are most important and not just focus on tasks that are the most urgent. 
  • In the times when it feels to her that she’s not doing things right, she takes pride in the work and success of her students, knowing that she’s helped to create an environment where they can flourish. 
  • When she was asked to give a keynote address at the Vista Conference, the International Paralympic Committee’s research conference, she celebrated the moment not just as a milestone in her career, but as a sign of how much the field of sports sociology has come since she started.

Resources

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