Events

2023 PHE Canada Research Forum

2023 PHE Canada Research Forum Keynote Address

Janice Forsyth profile photo

Dr. Janice Forsyth
Member of the Fisher River Cree First Nation
Professor in the Faculty of Education, School of Kinesiology, University of British Columbia

About Dr. Janice Forsyth

Janice Forsyth, member of the Fisher River Cree First Nation, is a Professor in the Faculty of Education, School of Kinesiology, at the University of British Columbia and a recognized leader in Indigenous sport development in Canada. She has more than twenty years’ experience exploring the relationship between sport and culture from Indigenous points of view and translating that knowledge into action by working with organizations and governments to align their policies and practices with Indigenous priorities for sport.

Her research experience spans diverse fields, including sport, health, education, and media, and embraces multidisciplinary, interdisciplinary, and transdisciplinary approaches to knowledge generation and dissemination. Her list of contributions to these areas is extensive, and includes more than 140 publications, scholarly presentations, invited talks, and keynote addresses to academic and lay audiences, all of which has attracted significant media attention nationally and internationally. To date, she has conducted more than 330 interviews with prominent outlets such as CBC (television, radio, and newspaper), The Globe and Mail, The Guardian, Forbes, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and BBC Sports.

Her co-edited book, Aboriginal Peoples and Sport in Canada: Historical Foundations and Contemporary Issues (2013), is now a standard text in many classrooms throughout Canada, while her recently released monograph, Reclaiming Tom Longboat: Indigenous Self-Determination in Canadian Sport (2020), won the Ontario History Award for Indigenous History as well as the North American Society for Sport History’s Best Monograph Award. Of note, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission incorporated several of her studies into their final reports published in 2015. And, in 2017, she was elected to the College of the Royal Society of Canada for her contributions to research and advocacy in Indigenous sport.