Thesis (M.A.)--University of Toronto (Canada), 2020
Includes bibliographical references
This thesis is a critical policy analysis of a Canadian urban university sport and recreation department's equity policies. Through a documentary analysis and interviews, this research reveals the connection between what equity policies claim to achieve and the (in)equity experienced by students. Findings demonstrate that the policies advance discourses that evince neoliberal values of competition, commodification, and elitism. They also further notions of institutional excellence in equity, while simultaneously lacking a plan to achieve such equity. The study concludes with recommendations for policies rooted in anti-oppression principles that address the needs of marginalized students through structural change, including a measurable action plan. Equity policies should also name publicly histories of oppression and exclusion in Canada as the rationale for institutional commitments to supporting Muslim, transgender, queer, Indigenous, Black, and racialized students who do not identify with Eurocentric cultures of masculine and competitive athletics, or fitness routines revolving around normative bodies
Electronic reproduction. Ann Arbor, Mich. : ProQuest, 2021
