Michael Atkinson

Michael Atkinson, Professor

  • Professor
55 Harbord Street, Toronto, ON M5S 2W6

About Michael

Academic Training

PhD, University of Calgary, 2001

MA, McMaster University, 1997

BA (hons), University of Waterloo, 1995

Graduate Student Recruitment Status
Accepting PhD and MSc students
Research Interests

Physical cultural studies 

Suffering, pain and illness 

Narrative ethics and narrative medicine 

Masculinities and health 

Ethnography

Selected Publications

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.