Janelle Joseph, PhD.
Janelle Joseph is an internationally recognized and award-winning storyteller committed to disseminating knowledge that sits at the intersections of racial justice, health, and sport. Dr. Joseph uses a decolonial and anti-racist approach to study racialized people’s physical culture experiences to counter the erasure of their intersectional stories and preserve health, life and dignity.
Dr. Janelle Joseph’s work has been transformative in Health Sciences and Black Studies in three important ways: (1) storytelling about geographical routes, ancestral roots, and achievement in Black communities; (2) applying intersectional analyses of race with sexuality, generation, disability, gender, and age; and (3) documenting abiding racism, colonialism, and decolonial resistance. These three pillars of critical race studies (storytelling, intersectional analyses, and anti-racism) are essential interventions.
Dr. Joseph’s research skills have been honed with the support of funding totaling over $4million. Her projects operate in the space between our current reality and the world we imagine, where all racialized people are humanized and exprience healing, joy, and community in and through their bodies. As a member of the Royal Society of Canada College of New Scholars, Scientists and Artists; former Director of Academic Success, Student Life; and Assistant Director, Transitional Year Programme at the University of Toronto, Dr. Joseph has applied, taught, and celebrated alternative ways of knowing and learning in the academy. Unapologetic about doing the ‘right’ thing, the IDEAS Research Lab develops through leadership programming and research, evidence-based curricula and policy, and innovative organizational structures for a better world.
Selected Awards
2023
Canada’s Top 100 Black Women to Watch, Canada International Black Women Excellence
North American Society for the Sociology of Sport (NASSS) Research Fellows Award
Emerging Leisure Scholar Award, Canadian Association of Leisure Studies
2022
Elected Member, Royal Society of Canada, College of New Scholars, Artists and Scientists
2020
Impact Award, International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, University of Toronto
2019
Chancellors Emerging Leader Award of Excellence, University of Toronto
Selected Funding
2024
Principal Investigator, Beyond ‘Empowering Women’: A Roundtable on Critical Embodied Women’s Martial Arts. Community Knowledge Alliance Award, Women and Gender Studies Institute $5,000
Principal Investigator, Mobilizing Black and Global South Women's Leadership, Connaught Major Research Challenge for Black Researchers $250,000
2023
Principal Investigator, A hockey coach education program for racialized youth: Promising practices for equity and representation. Carnegie Initiative Grant $25,000
Coinvestigator, Decolonial Challenges in Physical Culture: Ethnic-Racial, Gender, and Social Class Intersections. Brazilian National Council for Scientific and Technological Development $17,731
Co-Applicant, Partnership for Equitable, Diverse, and Inclusive Participation, Access, and Quality Experiences in Youth Sport, Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council Partnership Grant, with Catherine Sabiston, principal applicant $2,500,000
2022
Co-Applicant, A People’s History of Sport in Canada, Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council Insight Grant with Russell Field, principal applicant $192,626
Co-Director, “So what do we do now?": Moving intersectionality from academic theory to recreation-based praxis, Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council Race, Gender and Diversity Initiative, with Danielle Peers, director $450,000
2021
Principal Investigator, Anti-Racism E-Learning Module, Coaching Association of Canada $30,000
Principal Investigator, Anti-Black Racism and Equity Efforts in Canadian Inter-university Sport, Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council Insight Development Grant $75,000
Principal Investigator, The Racial, Gender, and Leadership Equity in Sport Project, SIRC Researcher/Practitioner Match Grant, (January 15, 2021-August 27, 2021) $2,500
2020
Principal Investigator, Enhancing Post-Secondary Access for Black, Indigenous and other Marginalized Youth through Embodied, Cultural and Community-Engaged Learning (August 18, 2020-October 31, 2022) University of Toronto Access Programs University Fund: Expand/Sustain/Build, $82,580
Principal Investigator, Race, Racialization and Gender Equity in Sport , Gender Equity in Sport Research Hub Seed Grant, $18,000
Principal Investigator, Learning to Lead: Physical Cultures and Life Skills for Racialized Students, Women’s Athletic Association Trust, $2,500