The Journal of Sport for Development is delighted to announce Dr. Mitchell McSweeney has been selected as the 2022 JSFD Early Career Scholar Award recipient. The annual award, established in 2019, recognizes an early career JSFD author in recognition of significant scholarly contributions to the sport for development field.
Award Winner
Dr. McSweeney seeks to conduct sport for development and peace research in both global North (e.g., Canada) and global South (e.g., Uganda) contexts. He uses theories such as postcolonial management theory and institutional theory while also adopting participatory action research approaches and the use of visual and digital methods (e.g., photovoice, photocollaging, digital storytelling) to collaborate with organizations, communities, groups, and individuals.
As an early career scholar, Dr. McSweeney has published over 30 book chapters and peer-reviewed articles, including in journals such as Journal of Sport Management, Sociology of Sport Journal, Sport Management Review, and the International Review for the Sociology of Sport, amongst others. He is also co-editor (with Per Svensson, Lyndsay Hayhurst, and Parissa Safai) of the recently released book, Social Innovation, Entrepreneurship, and Sport for Development and Peace.
His work has been funded and recognized in a number of ways, including receiving the Barbara Brown Student Paper Award in 2017 from the North American Society for the Sociology of Sport; a North American Society of Sport Management Doctoral Research Grant Award; and a Sport Management Association of Australia and New Zealand Best Conference Paper Award. Dr. McSweeney is also grateful to receive funding for his research from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC), including the Joseph-Armand Bombardier Canada Graduate Scholarship and Michael Smith Foreign Study Supplement for his PhD research. He is currently a collaborator on the SSHRC-funded study, “Wheels of Change”: Exploring ‘Bicycles for Development’ for Women and Girls in the (Post-)Pandemic Contexts of Canada, Uganda, and Nicaragua (2021-2026), led by Principal Investigator Dr. Lyndsay Hayhurst at York University (Toronto, Canada).
Dr. McSweeney is extremely honoured to be awarded the JSFD Early Career Scholar Award. He is greatly appreciative and thankful for the many mentors, colleagues, and community partners and research participants whom support his research and who he has had the privilege and pleasure to work with.
Evaluation Process
The evaluation process was overseen by the JSFD Early Career Scholar Award Committee. At least two committee members reviewed each nomination and all committee members evaluated nominations considered on the short list of finalists. Any member of the award committee who declared a conflict of interest with a particular candidate was excluded from providing an evaluation for that candidate, and other committee members or additional evaluations were utilized to undertake the review process.
Early Career Scholar Award Committee
Cora Burnett, Award Committee Chair, University of Johannesburg
Ollie Dudfield, Commonwealth Secretariat
Iain Lindsey, Durham University
Chiaki Okada, Osaka University
Nico Schulenkorf, University of Technology Sydney
Marielle Schweickart, Women Win
Emma Sherry, Swinburne University
To learn more about the award or find out if you qualify for future nomination, please visit the JSFD Early Career Scholar Award page.
Journal of Sport for Development 