Fred Mason, PhD

Fred MasonContact Information

Fred Mason
Associate Professor
Office Phone:  506-453-5021
Office Location:  2 Peter Kelly Drive, Room 205B
E-mail:  fmason@unb.ca

Degrees (University) - BPE, BA (Memorial), MA (Ottawa), PhD (Western)

 

Research Interests

Fred’s research interests vary across the sociology and history of sport, with a general focus on the media, gender and disability.  Specific research interests include:

  • sport in/and the media
  • media construction of gender in historical and sociological perspectives
  • the history of disability sport and its links to medical history
  • sport related tourism writing and promotion in the late 19th century
  • sport in literature and film

Biography

Fred Mason is an associate professor in the Faculty of Kinesiology at the University of New Brunswick.  After a BPE (Recreation) and BA (Sociology) at Memorial, he worked in community sport and recreation , returning to university to take a Master of Arts in the Sociology of Sport from the University of Ottawa. After his doctorate in Sport History from the University of Western Ontario, Fred was a Senior Lecturer in the Sport, Media and Culture program at De Montfort University in Bedford, England, a program focused on sports journalism, and sport in the media, film, and fiction and non-fiction writing.

Recent Publications

Mason, F. “Losing Ground in the Run Towards Science?  The Liberal Arts and Social Sciences in Kinesiology.” Proceedings of the International Conference of the Liberal Arts.  St. Thomas  University (Jan., 2011). URL: http://w3.stu.ca/stu/academic/departments/social_work/pdfs/Mason.pdf

Mason, F. “Sculpting Soldiers and Reclaiming the Maimed: R. Tait McKenzie’s Work in the First World War Period.” Canadian Bulletin of Medical History/Bulletin canadien d’histoire de la medicine, Vol. 27, no. 2, (2010), 363-383.

Mason, F., Hill, S. and  MacLatchy, M.  “Whose National Team? Which Games? A Comparison of Television Coverage of Canadian Women’s, Men’s and Sledge Hockey at Vancouver 2010,” in Barney, R.K., Forsyth, J. and Heine, M.K. (Eds.), Rethinking Matters Olympic: Investigations into the Socio-Cultural Study of the Modern Olympic Movement – Tenth International Symposium for Olympic Research  (International Centre for Olympic Studies, UWO, 2010), 239-247.

Mason, F. “Media Coverage of Women in Sport,” in Atkinson, M. (Ed.) Battleground: Sport. Volume I (Greenwood Press, 2009),  271-277.

Mason,  F. “Tackling Wikipedia as a Learning Opportunity on Sources for History.” Teaching and Learning in Higher Education [STLHE/SAPES Newsletter]. No. 53, (Fall 2009): 17.

Mason, F. “Wrestling with Drinking, Violence and the Active Media Consumer.” Southern Medical Journal, Vol. 101, no. 17 (July, 2008): 773.

Mason, F. “R. Tait McKenzie’s Medical Work, and Early Physical Activity Programs for People with Disabilities,” Sport History Review, Vol. 39 (May 2008), 45-70.

Mason, F. and Wamsley, K.B. “The Serving Sportsman and the Sporting Soldier: War-Time Masculinities in the Canadian Press,” in Lämmer, M., Mertin, M. & Thierry T. (Eds.), New Aspects of Sport History: Proceedings of the 9th ISHPES Conference, Cologne, Germany.  (Academia Verlag, 2007): 342-347.

Mason, F. “Returning to the Coliseum: Science Fiction Visions of Future Sports,” in Mead, D. and Frelik, P. (Eds.), Playing the Universe: Games and Gaming in Science Fiction (Maria Curie-Sklodowska University Press, 2007), 127-139.

Mason, F. “A Life in Multiple Major Leagues: Fred Dunlap – Star Player and Early Labor Agitator.” New England Journal of History, Vol. 63 (Fall 2006): 1-22.

Mason, F. “A ‘New-Found’ Olympic Nation: Newfoundland’s Involvement with the Olympic Games, 1904-1934,” in Crowther, N.B. Barney, R.K. & Heine, M.K. (Eds). Cultural Imperialism in Action: Critiques in the Global Olympic Trust - Eighth International Symposium for Olympic Research (International Centre for Olympic Studies, UWO, 2006): 303-313.

Mason, F. “Playing to Recover from Traumatic Violence: Medical Discourse on Sport as Physical Therapy During the First World War,” in Fernández Truán, HJ.C. and Aquesolo, J. (Eds.), Sport and Violence (Universidad Pablo de Olavide, 2006), 149-156.

Mason, F. & Rail, G. “The Creation of Sexual Difference in Canadian Newspaper Photographs of the 1999 Pan-American Games,” Women in Sport and Physical Activity Journal, Vol. 15, no. 1 (Spring 2006), pp. 28-41.

Mason, F. “Sport in the Service of Restoration: Sport as Physical Therapy During the First World War.” In     Aquelsolo, J. (Ed.)  Actas X Congreso Internacional de Historia del Deporte (Universidad Pablo de Olavide, 2005). URL: http://www.cafyd.com/HistDeporte/htm/pdf/1-6.pdf.

Recent Conference Presentations

Mason, F. “On the Border of Recognition: Canadian Newspaper Coverage of Sledge Hockey (Pre-Vancouver).” Paper presented at “Hockey on the Borders: An International Scholarly Conference” held in Buffalo, NY in June, 2010.

Mason, F. and Mustakos, C. “Rocky's Myths and Social Realities: The Rocky Franchise as Source and Intervention in Contemporary History.” Paper presented at the Visual Turn in Sport History conference, Bristol, England, June 2009.

Mason, F. “The Jugger’s Salute to North American and International Sports Film Audiences.” Paper presented to the Sport Literature Association Conference, London, ON, June 2009.

Mason, F.  “Notes on the Contradictory Nature of Sports Films.” Paper presented at the North American Society for the Sociology of Sport Conference, Denver, November 2008.

Mason, F. “Lessons From Investigating the Past: Reflections on an Exploration into the History of Youth Fitness in Canada.” Paper presented at the North American Society for     Sport History conference, Lake Placid, New York, May 2008.

Mason, F. “British Football Films and the Continuance of the Classless Society.” Paper presented at the North American Society for the Sociology of Sport Conference, Pittsburgh, November, 2007.

Mason, F.  “Towards an Auto-Ethnography of Ultra-Running.”  Paper presented at the joint International Sociology of Sport Association/International Society for the History of Physical Education and Sport Association Conference, Copenhagen, Denmark, July 2007.

Mason, F. “Sports as the Opiate of the Masses in Dystopian Science Fiction.” Paper presented to the Sport Literature Association Conference, Saratoga Springs, New York, June 2007.

Kirkwood, K.W. and Mason, F. “Drunk Like We Used to be: Nostalgia and the Homecoming Festival at an Ontario University.” Paper presented at 24th Qualitative Analysis Conference, Fredericton, May 2007.

Mason, F. “Lessons in Sport, Life and Ideology: Reading Children’s Sports Films.” Paper presented to the Council of University Professors and Researchers forum at the annual conference of the Canadian Association for Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance, Moncton, May 2007.

Mason, F. “Richard Bachman’s Post-Sport Nightmares and the Future of Reality TV?” Paper presented to the Stephen King Area, Popular Culture Association conference, Boston, April 2007.

Mason, F. “Narrating the Multicultural Nation: Canadian Television and the World Cup.” Paper presented at the North American Society for the Sociology of Sport Conference, Vancouver, November 2006.

Mason, F. “Running Men and Rollerballs: Science Fiction Futuresports as Critique of Sport and Society.” Sporting Cultures Conference, Liverpool, England, May 2006.

Mason, F. “Bears Fiercer than Tigers and Mountains Better then the Matterhorn: Selling Canada to British Sportsmen in the Late 19th Century.” British Society for Sport History conference, Pontypridd, Wales, September 2005.