Publications


Below are a selection of my most important academic contributions, which you’re welcome to download.

 
 

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Publications, Paper Discussion Christopher Matthews Publications, Paper Discussion Christopher Matthews

Communicating consent in sport. Paper discussion with Dr. Alex Channon

Consent in sport is under-theorised and under-evidenced. In this video, Alex and I discuss our process for pulling research together on the topic. It's taken us over a decade of chatting, thinking and formally collecting data to write up. We think there’s a lot to be learned from understanding how we work together.

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Publications Christopher Matthews Publications Christopher Matthews

The fog soon clears: Brain injuries in boxing

Boxing is ‘all about bodies’; beautiful bodies, broken bodies and, sometimes, brain-damaged bodies. And while a lot of research has explored the physiological side of ‘punch drunk’ syndrome, far less work has attempted to consider how boxers experience brain injuries.

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Publications Christopher Matthews Publications Christopher Matthews

The 'male preserve' thesis: Sporting culture and men's power

In exposing the inequalities enshrined within sports culture, along with the manifold dangers endured by boys and men in the stakes of ‘proving’ masculinity in and through sport, this body of scholarship placed the potentially harmful nature of the masculinity–sport relationship firmly into the academic discourse on sport and society.

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Publications Christopher Matthews Publications Christopher Matthews

Becoming a decent man

During the ten or so years that I’ve been involved in boxing I’ve seen countless people change their bodies, behaviours and performances of self. For many, this has been neatly understood as a simple process of becoming a boxer.

In large part, such ‘becoming’ involves moving from pugilistic newcomer towards a relatively comfortable embodiment of the physical and emotional grammars that are commonplace within boxing subcultures.

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Publications Christopher Matthews Publications Christopher Matthews

Exploring the pastiche hegemony of men

In this article I explore the continued hegemony of certain men. I use interview extracts to help think through the notion of pastiche hegemony as a means of understanding how men, and narratives about them, have changed but how unequal power relations persist.

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Publications Christopher Matthews Publications Christopher Matthews

The tyranny of the male preserve

Within this paper I draw on short vignettes and quotes taken from a two-year ethnographic study of boxing to think through the continuing academic merit of the notion of the male preserve. This is an important task due to evidence of shifts in social patterns of gender that have developed since the idea was first proposed in the 1970s.

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Publications Christopher Matthews Publications Christopher Matthews

The appropriation of hegemonic masculinity theory

Connell’s hegemonic masculinity thesis (HMT) has occupied a relatively dominant position within contemporary research exploring the lives of men. Messerschmidt has conducted a review of recent literature that purports to use HMT and he describes in detail some of the ways Connell’s work has been appropriated. Taking Messerschmidt’s lead, this paper explores a small selection of men’s health research that employ HMT as a central organising theme.

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Publications Christopher Matthews Publications Christopher Matthews

Biology ideology and pastiche hegemony

As knowledge about the biological foundation of the modern patriarchal gender order is increasingly challenged within late-modern social worlds, enclaves persist in which men and women can attempt to recreate understandings of the ‘natural’ basis of sex difference. Within ‘Power Gym’, male boxers were able to symbolise their bodies and behaviors in such a manner.

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Study a PhD with Dr. Christopher R. Matthews

I specialise in conducting and supervising immersive research, but I’m keen to discuss various projects and research methods with prospective students as well.