Curriculum Vitae:  McMaster University, Hamilton B.P.E. (Physical Education) 1993; University of British Columbia, Vancouver M.A. (Human Kinetics/Socio-Cultural Research Area) 1995; McMaster University, Hamilton Ph.D. (Sociology) 2000; SSHRC Postdoctoral Fellow, Simon Fraser University, Vancouver (Communication) 2000

Specialization:  Cultural Studies and Sociology -- with a particular focus on media, consumer culture, youth, social inequality, social movements, the environment, qualitative methods, and sport and leisure studies

Teaching:

The broad goal of the course is to review contemporary perspectives on the political, economic and social basis of leisure and sport. The course will focus on understanding how leisure and sport are both constraining (e.g., reinforcing stereotypes about and barriers that exist for certain social groups) and enabling (e.g., providing a forum where participants and fans form/experience a sense of community). In doing so, the course will provide analyses of the problems, myths and stereotypes that abound in various leisure and sport related contexts, while considering the part that sport and leisure (can) play in progressive social development.

The goal of this course is to examine a series of key topics drawn from cultural studies that are of particular interest to sociologists of sport and leisure. Topics to be covered will be in the following areas: media and sport; risk and social deviance; leisure subcultures; sport, leisure and social space; sport, leisure and the body; race and gender; and globalization, social movements and sport. The broad goal of the course is to offer a more advanced understanding of some key issues in the sociology of sport and leisure, and to encourage students to think critically about popular cultural phenomena.

The goals of this course are: (1) to consider and examine what qualitative research methods are and how and when they are best utilized; (2) to consider and engage key theoretical, methodological and ethical debates about and approaches to qualitative inquiry; (3) to use practical exercises doing qualitative research as a basis for discussion about the variety of ‘field research’ techniques and for considering challenges faced by those working ‘in the field’; (4) to consider the various strategies and criteria for critically examining qualitative research studies; and (5) to help students develop a research proposal. While the methods described in this course will generally be examined for their relationship to an interpretive sociological tradition, there will also be an emphasis placed on considering how this tradition can co-exist with ‘critical’ approaches to the study of social phenomena.

In this course we review and discuss theories focused around sport, leisure and popular/consumer culture. As part of interrogating these theories, we work through the following topics:
• symbolic interactions and meaning construction in sport/leisure-related cultural groups
• cultural taste, lifestyle and social status
• mass media structures and audiences
• subcultural formations and societal/commercial responses to alternative cultures
• processes of and cultural struggles around globalization
• (postmodern) cultural developments and the relevance of the Internet and cyberspace for understanding sport, leisure and popular/consumer culture
Through readings on these topics, we are exposed to ideas espoused by classical and contemporary social theorists. Issues around power and (unequal) social relations underlie the various topics in this course and are interrogated as part of examining the range of theoretical stances.

My research interests and projects lie in areas related to consumer culture, media, youth, the environment, social inequality, social movements, qualitative methods, and sport and leisure studies generally. My previous work includes writing and research on: the role of new media in the emergence and development of youth activist groups; recreation-related initiatives for underserved youth (e.g., youth experiences in drop-in recreation programmes); the 'rave' dance/drug subculture in Southern Ontario; youth audience interpretations of media messages (e.g., interpretations of race and gender images; interpretations of anti-smoking messages); portrayals of youth in mass media (e.g., moral panics about youth violence); media portrayals of race and gender (e.g., images of Black athletes in commercial advertising; messages about masculinity in talk radio); and fan involvement in sport-related movements to save/revive sport franchises (and the political and economic factors that impact the success of these movements).

I am currently Principal Investigator on a Standard Research Grant funded through the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) entitled Corporate Environmentalism and the Canadian Golf Industry. My writing and research programme also continues to revolve around findings from a recently completed project (also funded through a SSHRC Standard Research Grant) entitled Connected Youth: A Study of Youth-Driven Social Movements, Globalization, and Community in the Age of the Internet.

Publications:

Book

Wilson, Brian. (2006). Fight, Flight, or Chill: Subcultures, Youth, and Rave into the 21st Century. Montreal & Kingston, London, Ithaca: McGill-Queen's University Press.

Book Chapters and Refereed Articles

Millington, Brad & Wilson, Brian. (forthcoming). Context Masculinities: Media Consumption, Physical Education, and Youth Identities. American Behavioral Scientist.

Wilson, Brian & Hayhurst, Lyndsay. (2009). Digital Activism: Neo-Liberalism, the Internet, and ‘Sport for Development’. Sociology of Sport Journal, 26(1), 155-181.

Wilson, Brian (2009). Ethnography, the Internet, and Youth Culture: Strategies for Examining Social Resistance and "Online Offline" Relationships. In M. Srinivasan & R. Mathur (Eds.), Ethnography and the Internet: An Exploration (pp. 14-34). Nagarjuna Hills, Punjagutta, India: ICFAI University Press. (Reprint of 2006 article published originally in Canadian Journal of Education)

Millington, Brad, Vertinsky, Patricia, Boyle, Ellexis and Wilson, Brian. (2008) Making Chinese-Canadian masculinities in Vancouver's physical education curriculum. Sport, Education and Society, 13(2), 195-214.

Wilson, Brian. (2008). Believe the Hype?: The Impacts of the Internet on Sport-Related Subcultures. In M. Atkinson & K. Young (Eds.), Tribal Play: Sport, Subcultures and Countercultures (pp. 135-152). Amsterdam, The Netherlands: Elsevier Science.

Wilson, Brian. (2007). New Media, Social Movements, and Global Sport Studies: A Revolutionary Moment and the Sociology of Sport. Sociology of Sport Journal, 24(4), 457-477.

Wilson, Brian. (2007). Oppression is the Message: Media, Sport, Spectacle and Gender. In P. White & K. Young (Eds.), Sport and Gender in Canada (2nd Edition) (pp. 212-233). Toronto, ON: Oxford University Press.

Jette, Shannon, Wilson, Brian, & Sparks, Robert. (2007). Female Youth Interpretations of Smoking in Film. Qualitative Health Research, 17(3), 323-339.

Wilson, Brian. (2006). Ethnography, The Internet and Youth Culture: Strategies for Examining Social Resistance and ‘Online-Offline’ Relationships. Canadian Journal of Education, 29(1), 307-328.

Darnell, Simon & Wilson, Brian. (2006). Macho media: Unapologetic hypermasculinity in Vancouver’s ‘talk radio for guys’. Journal of Broadcasting and Electronic Media, 50(3), 444-466.

Wilson, Brian. (2006). Selective Memory In A Global Culture: Reconsidering Links Between Youth, Hockey and Canadian Identity. In R. Gruneau & D. Whitson (Eds.), Artificial Ice: Hockey, Culture, and Commerce (pp. 53-70). Peterborough, ON: Broadview/Garamond Press.

Sabiston, Cathi & Wilson, Brian. (2006). Britney, the Body and the Blurring of Popular Cultures: A case study of music videos, gender, a transcendent celebrity, and health issues. In L. Fuller (Ed.), Sport, Rhetoric, and Gender: Historical Perspectives and Media Representations (pp. 199-210). New York: Palgrave.

Greenberg, Joshua & Wilson, Brian. (2006). Youth Violence, Moral Panic, and the Canadian News Media: News Coverage of School Shootings in the United States and Canada. In P. Attallah & L. Regan Shade (Eds), Mediascapes: New Patterns in Canadian Communication (pp. 95-113). Toronto, ON: Thomson/Nelson.

Wilson, Brian & Atkinson, Michael. (2005). Rave and Straightedge, the Virtual and the Real: Exploring On-line and Off-line Experiences in Canadian Youth Subcultures. Youth & Society, 36(3), 276-311.

Wilson, Brian. (2005). Race, representation, and the promotional culture of the NBA: The Canadian Case. In S. Jackson & D. Andrews (Eds.), Sport, Culture, and Advertising: Identities, Commodities and the Politics of Representation (pp. 100-118). New York, NY: Routledge.

Wilson, Brian & Jette, Shannon. (2005). Interpreting the Cultural Activities of Canadian Youth. N. Mandell & A. Duffy (Eds.), Canadian Families: Diversity, Conflict and Change (pp. 64-86). Toronto, ON: Nelson.

Wilson, Brian. (2005). Anti-jock movement. In D. Levinson & K. Christensen (Eds.), Berkshire Encyclopedia of World Sport. Great Barrington, MA: Berkshire Publishing Group.

Carrington, Ben. & Wilson, Brian. (2004). Dance Nation: Rethinking Youth Subcultural Theory. In A. Bennett & K. Harris (Eds.), After Subculture: Critical Studies of Contemporary Youth Culture (pp. 65-78). New York, NY: Palgrave.

Wilson, Brian & White, Phil. (2003). Urban Sanctuary: Youth Culture in a Recreation/Drop-in Centre. In R. Wilcox, D. Andrews, R. Pitter, & R. Irwin (Eds.) Sporting Dystopias: The Making and Meaning of Urban Sport and Cultures (pp. 153-178) Albany, NY: State University of New York Press.

Wilson, Brian. (2002). The Canadian Rave Scene and Five Theses on Youth Resistance. Canadian Journal of Sociology, 27(3), 373-412.

Wilson, Brian. (2002). The “Anti-Jock” Movement: Reconsidering Youth Resistance, Masculinity and Sport Culture in the Age of the Internet. Sociology of Sport Journal, 19(2), 207-234.

Wilson, Brian & White, Phil. (2002). “Revive the Pride”: Social Process, Political Economy and a Fan-Based Grassroots Movement. Sociology of Sport Journal, 19(2), 119-148.

Atkinson, Michael. & Wilson, Brian (2002). Subcultures, Bodies and Sport. In J. Maguire & K. Young (Eds.), Theory, Sport and Society (pp. 375-395). Amsterdam, The Netherlands: Elsevier Science.

Carrington, Ben. & Wilson, Brian. (2002). Global clubcultures: Cultural flows and ‘late modern’ dance music culture. In M. Ceislik & G. Pollock (Ed.), Young People in a Risk Society: The Restructuring of Youth Identities and Transitions in Late Modernity (pp. 74-99). Aldershot, Hampshire, UK: Ashgate Publishing.

Wilson, Brian & White, Phil. (2001). Tolerance Rules: Identity, Resistance, and Negotiation in an Inner City Recreation/Drop in Center. Journal of Sport and Social Issues, 25(1), 73-103.

Wilson, Brian, White, Phil, & Fisher, Karen. (2001). Multiple Identities in a Marginalized Culture: Female Youth In An “Inner City” Recreation/Drop-In Centre. Journal of Sport and Social Issues, 25(3), 301-323.

Carrington, Ben & Wilson, Brian. (2001, November). One Continent Under a Groove: Rethinking the Politics of Youth Subcultural Theory. Soundscapes (on-line journal of media culture), vol. 4, http://www.icce.rug.nl/~soundscapes/.

Wilson, Brian & Sparks, Robert. (2001). Michael Jordan, Sneaker Commercials, and Canadian Youth Cultures. In D. Andrews (Ed.), Michael Jordan Inc.: Corporate Sport, Media Culture, and Late Modern America (pp. 217-255). Albany, NY: State University of New York Press.

Wilson, Brian. (2000). Book Review of ‘Sport and Postmodern Times’ by Genevieve Rail. International Journal of Sport History, 17(1), 211-214.

Wilson, Brian. (2000). Book Review of ‘Taboo: Why Black Athletes Dominate Sports and Why We Are Afraid to Talk About It’ by Jon Entine. OLYMPIKA -- International Journal of Olympic Studies, IX, 115-122.

Wilson, Brian & Sparks, Robert. (1999). Impacts of Black Athlete Media Portrayals on Canadian Youth. Canadian Journal of Communication, 24(4), 589-627.

White, Phil & Wilson, Brian. (1999). Distinctions in the Stands: An Investigation of Bourdieu’s ‘Habitus’, Socio-Economic Status and Sport Spectatorship in Canada. International Review for the Sociology of Sport, 34(3), 245-264.

Wilson, Brian. (1999). “Cool Pose” Incorporated: The Marketing of Black Masculinity in Canadian NBA Coverage. In P. White & K. Young (Eds.), Sport and Gender in Canada (pp. 232-253) Toronto, ON: Oxford University Press.

Wilson, Brian. (1999). Cultural Studies, Postmodernism, and Symbolic Interactionist Ethnography: Some Comments about Integration and Compatibility. In W. Shaffir, D. Pawluch, & C. Miall (Eds.), Conference Proceedings for the First Annual Colloquium on Qualitative Research, 71-83.

Wilson, Brian. (1997). “Good Blacks” and “Bad Blacks”: Media Constructions of African-American Athletes in Canadian Basketball. International Review for the Sociology of Sport, 32(2), 177-189.

Wilson, Brian & Sparks, Robert. (1996). “It’s Gotta Be the Shoes”: Youth, Race, and Sneaker Commercials. Sociology of Sport Journal, 13(4), 398-427.

Last Modified Tuesday, March 17, 2009