Publications
Below are a selection of my most important academic contributions, which you’re welcome to download.
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Myths and Reality Building
How do myths become real? This paper explores that question in relation to boxing, and a short video overview accompanies it.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Understanding sports violence – revisiting foundational explorations
Within this paper, we discuss the importance of attending to definitions of ‘violence’. Through a return to a selection of important foundational works, we attempt to unpack the fundamental meanings of violence in a general sense, and sport violence in particular.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.