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FUTURE STUDENTS ask.UWindsor SUPPORT UWINDSOR
Faculty of Human Kinetics

Dr. Vicky Paraschak

Professor

E-mail: parasch@uwindsor.caDr. Vicky Paraschak
Phone : (519) 253 - 3000 ext: 2445
Office: H.K. Building Room 112

Sport Management

B.P.E. (McMaster University)
M.H.K. (University of Windsor)
Ph.D. (University of Alberta)

Bio

Dr. Vicky Paraschak has been a faculty member in Kinesiology since 1984. During this time, she has taught undergraduate courses primarily in Sociology of Sport, Government and Sport, Outdoor Recreation, Urban Outdoor Recreation and Social Construction of Leisure. At the graduate level she teaches Social Issues in Sport Management. Her research focuses on Aboriginal peoples and sport, and she has facilitated several workshops using a strengths perspective to help improve conditions for Aboriginal sport in Canada. She also has worked with the NWT government’s Sport and Recreation Division as a policy officer, and as a consultant facilitating various Directions Conferences. She completed a project linked to the 2007 Canada Winter Games in Whitehorse Yukon examining conflicting approaches towards public versus athlete health concerns, and created a program wherein Kinesiology students served as mentors working with “at risk” students of promise in Windsor high schools, using the outdoors to enhance their success in school and life. Currently her focus is on efforts to enhance reconciliation with Indigenous peoples in Canada specifically in the area of physical activity, in keeping with the five relevant calls to action found in the Truth and Reconciliation Commission summary report. One such project was ensuring that public knowledge about the accomplishments of elite Indigenous athletes was enhanced (call to action #87). Over 190 entries are now publicly accessible on Wikipedia, organized into three categories: First Nations sportspeople, Métis sportspeople and Canadian Inuit sportspeople. She also has worked with others to create the website https://indigenoussporthistory.ca/ 

Areas of Research Interest

Aboriginal peoples and their physical cultural practices
Marginalized peoples, power relations and sport
Canadian government policy in sport and recreation
At risk youth and outdoor education
Aboriginal peoples, sport and reconciliation


Key Scholarly Articles:

  1. Paraschak, Victoria; Golob, Matias; Giles; Audrey & Forsyth, Janice (2020), Ethnicity and Race in Canadian Sport and Physical Culture, in Jay Scherer & Brian Wilson (eds.), Sport and Physical Culture in Canadian Society, Second Edition, 95-120, Toronto: Pearson Canada.
     
  2. Paraschak, Victoria & Heine, Michael (2020), Co-Transforming Through Shared Understandings of Land-Based Practices in SDP, in Simon Darnell & Rob Millington (eds.), Sport, Development and Environmental Sustainability, 178-194. England: Routledge.
     
  3. Paraschak, Victoria (2019), # 87: Reconciliation, Sport History and Indigenous Peoples in Canada, Journal of Sport History, 46: 215-230.
     
  4. Paraschak, Victoria (2019), Sports and Indigenous Peoples: Canada, in Joseph Maguire, Mark Falcous & Katie Liston (eds.), The Business and Culture of Sports: Society, Politics, Economy, Environment, 159-175, Michigan: Macmillan Reference USA.
     
  5. Paraschak, Victoria (2015), Intertwining Histories, Enhancing Strengths: Sport and Recreation Services in the Northwest Territories, 1962-2000 In Russell Fields, R.(ed.), Playing for Change: The Continuing Struggle for Sport and Recreation, 299-330, Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
     
  6. Paraschak, Victoria (2013), Hope and Strength(s) through Physical Activity for Canada's Aboriginal Peoples, Chris Hallinan Barry Judd (eds.), Native Games: Indigenous Peoples and Sports in the Post-Colonial World, 229-246, UK: Emerald.
     
  7. Paraschak, Victoria & Thompson, Kristi (2013), Finding strength(s): Insights on Canadian Aboriginal physical cultural practices, Sport in Society, 1046-1060.
     
  8. Paraschak, Victoria (2013), The Road (Not) Taken: Academic-Life Relations in the Sociocultural Study of Sport, Sport History Review, 44: 77-90.
     
  9. Paraschak, Victoria & Forsyth, Janice (2010). Aboriginal women 'working' at play: Canadian insights. Ethnologies 32 (1): 157-173.

Book Chapters:

  1. Paraschak, Victoria, (2015) "Intertwining Histories, Enhancing Strengths: Sport and Recreation Services in the Northwest Territories, 1962-2000" in Fields, R. (ed.), Playing for change: The Continuing Struggle for Sport and Recreation. University of Toronto Press, 299-330.
     
  2. Paraschak, Victoria & Tirone, Susan. (2015) “Ethnicity and Race in Canadian Sport” in Crossman, Jane; Scherer, Jay (eds.), Social Dimensions of Canadian Sport and Physical Activity. Toronto: Pearson, 90-115.
     
  3. Forsyth, Janice & Paraschak, Victoria. (2013) “The Double Helix: Aboriginal People and Sport Policy in Canada” in Thibault, Lucie; Harvey, Jean (eds.), Sport Policy in Canada. Ottawa: University of Ottawa Press, 267-293.
     
  4. Paraschak, Victoria (2013), "Hope and Strength(s) through Physical Activity for Canada's Aboriginal Peoples", in Hallinan, Chris; Judd, Barry (eds), lNative Games: Indigenous Peoples and Sports in the Post-Colonial World, Emerald (UK), 229-246.
     
  5. Paraschak, Victoria (2013), "Iditarod", in Encyclopedia of World Sport, Berkshire Publishing.
     
  6. Paraschak, Victoria (2013), "Native American Games and Sports", in Encyclopedia of World Sport, Berkshire Publishing.
     
  7. Paraschak, Victoria (2012), "Aboriginal Peoples and the Construction of Canadian Sport Policy", in Forsyth, J; Giles, A, Aboriginal Peoples & Sport in Canada, UBC Press, 95-123.
     
  8. Paraschak, Victoria (2012), "Public Health, Elite Sport and "Risky Behaviours" at the Canada Winter Games",  in Safai, P; Malcolm, D, The Social Organization of Sports Medicine and the Actions/Experiences of Those Involved in Healthcare Delivery in Sport, Routledge, 126-149.
     
  9. Paraschak, Victoria & Forsyth, Janice (2011), "Invisible but not Absent: Aboriginal Women, Knowledge Production and the Restructuring of Canadian Sport", in Adair, D, Sport, Race, and Ethnicity: Narratives of Diversity and Difference, Fitness Information Technology Publishing, 219-234.
     
  10. Paraschak, Victoria & Salinitri, Geri (2011), "University of Windsor (CA) Integrated Service Learning",  in Miller, M.; Nendel, J., Service-Learning in Physical Education and Related Professions: A Global Perspective, Jones and Bartlett Publishers, 318-323.