About Michael
PhD, University of Calgary, 2001
MA, McMaster University, 1997
BA (hons), University of Waterloo, 1995
Dr. Michael Atkinson is a Professor of Physical Cultural Studies and the Director of the Suffering, Pain, and Ethics Lab (University of Toronto) Dr. Atkinson's central areas of research, teaching, and supervision pertain to the study of suffering and pain in a variety of physical cultures and health care contexts. He is particularly interested in the existential phenomenology of invisible/hidden disabilities and is presently engaged in ethnographic/narrative research projects on epilepsy, insomnia, and forest-based therapeutic practices. Dr. Atkinson continues to engage in qualitative research on boy’s and men’s heath trajectories and radically contextual relationships with violence, depression, and existential questions pertaining to the self. In this work he explores the potential and promise of narrative ethics and narrative/existential medicine for sufferers and practitioners. Detailed bio on DiscoverResearch.
Physical cultural studies
Suffering, pain and illness
Narrative ethics and narrative medicine
Masculinities and health
Ethnography
Milne, A., Atkinson, M., Kerr, G., & Stirling, A. (2026). Competitive dancers’ social identities and experiences of harm. Research in Dance Education, 27(3), 329–347.
Thibodeau, E. D., Sabiston, C. M., & Atkinson, M. (2025). “Shut up! Don't look at me!”: A qualitative description of body image and attention among elite athletes. Psychology of Sport and Exercise, 86, Article 102951.
Serota, K., Atkinson, M., Upshur, R., & Buchman, D.Z. (2025). Dignity Narratives in Complex MAiD Bereavement Stories: A Critical Qualitative Analysis. Narrative Inquiry in Bioethics 15(3), 227-243.
Atkinson, M., & Young, K. (2020). On whiskey, generational osmosis, and thinking ‘til it hurts: Eric Dunning and the Canadian Sociology of Sport Figuration. Sport in Society, 23(10), 1690–1701.
Atkinson, M. (2019), "Sport and Risk Culture", The Suffering Body in Sport (Research in the Sociology of Sport, Vol. 12), Emerald Publishing Limited, pp. 5-21.
Gibson, K., & Atkinson, M. (2018). Beyond Boundaries: The Development and Potential of Ethnography in the Study of Sport and Physical Culture. Cultural Studies ↔ Critical Methodologies, 18(6), 442–452.
Cairney, J., McGannon, K. R., & Atkinson, M. (2018). Exercise is medicine: critical considerations in the qualitative research landscape. Qualitative Research in Sport, Exercise and Health, 10(4), 391–399.