Danielle Peers (they/them) is a community organizer, an artist, and an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Kinesiology, Sport, and Recreation at the University of Alberta. They are also a Canada Research Chair in Disability and Movement Cultures (SSHRC, Tier II). They were a Vanier and Trudeau scholar throughout their PhD at the University of Alberta, and a Banting Postdoctoral scholar at Concordia University in Montreal. Danielle uses critical disability theories to study disability movement cultures: from the Paralympics, to inclusive recreation, to disability arts. Their research builds on their experiences as a Paralympic athlete, parasport coach, a filmmaker, and a dancer . Danielle is co-director of the Just Movements CreateSpace, which takes arts-based and disability justice approaches to generating and sharing knowledges about bodies in motion.
Danielle has made seven activist-oriented films, co-curated three art shows, and co-founded two arts collectives. They have co-choreographed three dances, and have performed for eight years as a dancer with CRIPSiE, The Good Women Dance Collective, as well as dancing for choreographers Lindsay Eales and Alice Sheppard. Danielle is an active disability and queer community organizer, a national ambassador for Muscular Dystrophy Canada, and a public speaker. Athletics In their former career as a wheelchair basketball athlete, Danielle won a Bronze Paralympic Medal, a World Championship, and five National Championships. They also won numerous championships and all-star awards while playing in men's leagues in USA and in France. In 2006, Danielle was named the Worlds Most Valuable Player, and was a finalist for the 2007 International Sports Woman of the Year. |