Lyndsay M.C. Hayhurst

Lyndsay Hayhurst is a York Research Chair (Tier II) in Sport, Gender, Development and Digital Participatory Research, and an Associate Professor in the School of Kinesiology and Health Science at York University in Toronto, Canada. Her research interests include sport for development and peace (SDP); climate and gender-based violence; gender, cycling and mobility justice; intersectional environmentalism; decolonial feminist theory; sexual and reproductive health rights promotion in/through SDP; and the utility of sport to address inequities amongst self-identified women who are affected by violence and trauma. She is a co-author (with Holly Thorpe and Megan Chawansky) of Sport, Gender and Development: Intersections, Innovations and Future Trajectories (2021). Her publications have appeared in Women’s Studies International Forum; Gender, Place & Culture; Third World Quarterly and Sociology of Sport Journal. Her current research focuses on two projects funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) and Canadian Foundation for Innovation (CFI): the first focuses on the use of non-human objects and technologies in sport for development and peace – in particular, the bicycle – as possible catalysts for development. The second study (PI: Dr. Audrey Giles), explores sport for reconciliation (SFR) – or the use of sport as a means to promote reconciliation between Indigenous and settler peoples in Canada, Australia and Aotearoa. A third study, funded by a Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) grant (PI: Dr. Francine Darroch), uses community-based participatory research (CBPR) in Ottawa, Toronto and Vancouver to develop a novel approach to address physical inactivity and assess inequities amongst self-identified women who are affected by violence and trauma. She has previously worked for the United Nations Development Programme and Right to Play.