Mark Norman graduated from the MAIS program in 2009. His MA project critically analyzed the growing global phenomenon of “sport for peace,” which seeks to use sport-based interventions as peacebuilding tools in war-torn or otherwise divided societies. Following this interest in the relationship between sport and social development, Mark undertook a PhD in the Faculty of Kinesiology and Physical Education at the University of Toronto. He graduated in 2015, having completed a thesis that examined the sociological significance of sport and physical recreation in the Canadian federal prison system.
For the next two years Mark worked as a project manager at the Centre for Sport Policy Studies at the University of Toronto, and taught at University of Toronto (Faculty of Kinesiology and Physical Education) and Ryerson University (Department of Sociology). In 2017, Mark began a SSHRC Postdoctoral Fellowship at McMaster University. Based out of the Department of Health, Aging & Society, Mark is undertaking a research project to explore alternative forms of physical recreation and therapeutic interventions in the Canadian corrections system, with a specific focus on animal-assisted interventions and yoga.
Mark has published research in journals including Sociology of Sport Journal and International Review for the Sociology of Sport, and chapters in a number of edited books. Mark received graduate paper awards from the North American Society of the Sociology of Sport and the International Sociology of Sport Association.
Mark currently lives in Hamilton, Ontario, with his wife Melissa and infant son Elliott.
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