International Centre for Olympic Studies

Graduate Students

The International Centre for Olympic Studies provides support for graduate student research through the provision of study and research space, and through making available its reference library and archival resources. Some of the projects carried out with support from the Centre, are listed below. Additional information can be found in the description of the Centre's research activities.

Ph.D. Dissertations

in progress Andrew Pettit The historical influence of the international peace movement on Pierre de Coubertin and the politics of peace within the Olympic movement.
in progress Courtney van Waas Cross-relationships of YMCA religious practices and provision of sporting goods and services to German prisoners of war in Canada during World War II.
in progress Tom Fabian The Effects of the UNESCO Cultural Heritage Register on Folk Sport in the Age of Olympic globalism
in progress Nevada Cooke U.S. President Gerald Ford and the President's Commission on Olympic Sport in the Context of Cold-War Politics
in progress Evan Nagel The role of local newspapers in popular campaigns aimed at attracting a major league baseball franchise. The case of Buffalo, NY, and Toronto, ON.
in progress Jared Walters Nationalism and Mediatic Representations in extreme sports: Ultimate Fight Championship and Mixed Martial Arts
2017 Andreja Milasincic Winter Sport Nationalism: The Canadian Olympic Press from Calgary 1988 to Vancouver 2010
2016 Jason Winders 'Fought the Good Fight, Finished My Course': George Dixon Amid the Rising Tide of Jim Crow America
2015 Doiara dos Santos Avery Brundage, the Pan American Games and the Consolidation of the Olympic Movement in South America
2015 Wenshuai (Sunny) Mao Failed Sustainability: The Nature and Significance of Olympic Education in Beijing Commensurate with the 2008 Summer Olympics
2015 Michael Capobianco Voices of Discontent: Avery Brundage and the IOC's Dilemma of South African Olympic Participation, 1956-1968
2014 Brad Congelio Before the World Was Quiet: Ronald Reagan, Cold War Foreign Policy, and the 1984 Los Angeles Olympic Summer Games
2012 Xiaowei Yu The Question of Legacy and the 2008 Olympic Games: An Exploration of post-Games Utilization of Olympic Sport Venues in Beijing
2011 Toby Rider The Olympic Games and the Secret Cold War: The U.S. Government and the Propaganda Campaign Against Communist Sport, 1950-1960
2009 Sarah Teetzel Auxiliary Rules of Reform: A Critical Analysis of Olympic Eligibility
2006 Christine O'Bonsawin Spectacles, Policy, and Social Memory: Images of Canadian Indians at World's Fairs and Olympic Games
2004 Ken Kirkwood Out of the Olympic Closet: Abandoning Prohibitions on Olympic Doping in Favour of a Harm Reduction Approach
2000 Scott Martyn The Struggle for Financial Autonomy: The IOC and the Historical Emergence of Corporate Sponsorship, 1896-2000
1998 Gordon MacDonald Regime Creation, Maintenance and Change: A History of Relations between the IOC and International Sports Federations, 1894-1968
1997 Douglas Brown Theories of Beauty and Modern Sport: Pierre de Coubertin's Aesthetic Imperative for the Modern Olympic Movement, 1894-1914

M.A. Theses and Projects

in progress Charlton Elliott Representations of Race and Blackness in the NFL. The Kapernick case
2015 Michael Cathcart 'When Green Became the New Gold': A Thematic Analysis of the Environmental Sustainability Narratives of the 2010 Vancouver Olympics
2014 Sophy Chan Unveiling the 'Olympic Kidnapping Act': Examining Public Policy and Homelessness in the 2010 Vancouver Olympic Games
2013 Renee Mahoney "Making Headlines: The Politics of Sex Trafficking and Sex Work During the 2010 Vancouver Olympics.
2013 Joshua Archer What Canada Saw: A Thematic Media Analysis of the Montreal Olympic Games as Reported in the Montreal Gazette and The Globe and Mail
2009 Geoffrey Bardwell Sex Gender Ideology and the Politics of Power/Resistance: On Althusser and Foucault towards an Investigation of Sex Testing 
2004 Ian Watts Igniting the Nation: Print Media Representations of Aboriginality in the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games
2004 Kristina Kolesnyk Globalization and Sport: Athletic Talent Migration to Canada
2003 Anthony Church The Sacred Cow: Calgary and the XV Olympic Winter Games
2002 Christine O'Bonsawin Failed Test: Aboriginal Sport Policy and the Olympian Firth Sisters
2001 Amanda Schweinbenz All Dresse Up and Nowhere to Run: Women's Uniforms and Clothing in the Olympic Games, 1900-1932
2000 Guy Schultz The I.A.A.F. and the IOC: Their Relationship and Its Impact on the Women's Participation in Track and Field at the Olympic Games, 1912-1932
2000 Janice Forsyth From Assimilation to Self-Determination: The Emergence of J. Wilton Littlechild's North American Indigenous Games, 1763-1997
1997 Pei Dongguang A Question of Names: The Two Chinas Issue and the People's Republic of China in the Modern Olympic Movement
1990 Daniel Reid The Amateur Athletic Union of the United States and the Canadian Amateur Athletic Union, 1897-1914
1988 Stephen Wenn A Question of Neutrality: Franklin Delano Roosevelt and the Department of State on the Issue of Proposed American Participation in the Berlin Olympic Games of 1936
1987 Shayne Quick Black Knight Checks White King: The Conflict between African Bloc Nations and Avery Brundage during the 1960s