Last October, the Peter Harrison Centre (PHC) welcomed ten new doctoral researchers, marking an exciting step in the continued growth and evolving scope of the Centre's research. As their projects begin to take shape, we are delighted to showcase the wide range of academic backgrounds, professional experiences, and shared curiosity that each new researcher brings to the PHC community.
To help everyone get to know our newest cohort, we are sharing a short series of introductions. Each feature spotlights one doctoral researcher, offering insight into their journey to doctoral study, their previous experience, and the questions driving their PhD research.
This is the tenth and final article article in the series and introduces Victoria Ballard.
Victoria completed her undergraduate degree in American Studies and English Joint Honours from the University of Nottingham where she studied a range of topics from literature to foreign policy. This was where Victoria was first exposed to the idea of sport being used for diplomatic purposes and sport sociology and policy became an avid interest of hers.
Following her BA, Victoria completed and MSc in Sport Management, Politics, and International Development at Loughborough University, where her research and dissertation focused on the utilisation of ideology and misinformation in World Athletics’ gender-eligibility policies. Victoria particularly took interest in research philosophy, the construction of accessibility in sport, and how sport has become a microcosm for societies beliefs and prejudices.
Victoria's PhD is in partnership with Activity Alliance. Her research focuses on barriers and facilitators to entry for disabled children and youth in sport, and how to tackle these inequalities. Through combining theoretical concepts and expertise from academia, alongside lived experience in the sector in co-production with Activity Alliance, they are hoping to create efficient data collection methods and produce meaningful outcomes that will lead to affective change in the sector. Currently, Victoria is also researching ethics and morality in research, research philosophy, Critical Disability Studies, and epistemic injustice.
As we close this series, we are delighted to welcome the new cohort of doctoral researchers to the PHC. Their projects highlight the Centre's commitment to inclusive, critical, and applied research, and we are excited to see how their PhD work shapes future thinking and practice within Para and disability sport.