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My research

After graduating from law school at the Université de Montréal and with a Master’s in Sport Management from Brock University, I knew I wanted to conduct research that addresses social problems and inequities, both in sport and in society more broadly.

As a Master’s student and at the beginning of my PhD, I was struck by the more critical conversations happening around the sport context. Beyond just a game or leisure activity, sport is a space to study issues as varied as masculinity and gender, race and racism, colonialism, nation building and myth-making, and labour relations, opening the door for broader conversation and activism from both scholars and athletes.

Merging my interests in sport, masculinity and deviance, I decided to pursue my doctoral studies in Sociology at McGill University, looking at the issue of violence against women in professional sport. More specifically, I examined how and why players in the NBA and NFL – who as young, wealthy Black men sit at an interesting nexus of class privilege and racialized disadvantage in terms of their treatment by the criminal justice system – suffer or avoid certain legal and extra-legal sanctions following arrests for acts of violence against women.

As a lecturer at Middlesex University London, my research agenda has also expanded to the more general study of how social structures, institutions and culture shape deviant and criminal behaviour, as well as how gender, race, class and sexuality impact outcomes in the criminal justice system and the social construction of crime. This has led to projects looking at cultural backlash against socially progressive changes in sport and in society, Canadian hockey masculinity and cancel culture on Twitter, and the construction of victimhood in victim impact statements, with a particular focus on how gender, race and class influence presentations of victimhood in cases of domestic violence and sexual violence. Newer lines of research focus on capitalism and neo-liberalism and its connections to harm and violence.

I’ve had a winding, non-traditional path in academia, with degrees in multiple fields and an interest in several different areas. This has also resulted in learning and using a variety of methods in my research, from Bayesian and frequentist regression and quantitative analysis (using R) to qualitative interviewing and content analysis.

If any of these research themes or methods interest you, I would love to chat about potential research collaborations!

Change the Game Report

Between March and June 2021, I completed a grant-funded industry-academia collaborative project with MLSE, surveying over 6800 youth and parents about sport barriers, enablers, and equity issues that still exist in sport in Ontario. I led the quantitative and qualitative analysis, writing of the full report, and data visualizations. Given the pandemic’s disproportionate effect on marginalized groups, the goal of this project was to speak directly to youth and parents to assess how best to build our sport system back in an equitable, accessible, and inclusive way.

Publications

I update this regularly, but sometimes Google Scholar may beat me to it

Sailofsky, D., Craig, M., Bleakley, P. (2025). The power of story: assessing crime attribution before and after watching videos of incarcerated people serving life without parole sentences. American Journal of Criminal Justice. aop.  

Orr, M., and Sailofsky, D. (2025). Are athletes credible messengers on climate change? Environment: Science and Policy for Sustainable Development, 67(4), 32-42.

Bannoura, D., Dreidi, O., Macauley, M. D., McCullough, K., O’Keeffe, R., Pijetlovic, K., Chen, C., Rochon, R., & Sailofsky, D. (2025). Can There Be “Normal” Sport in an Abnormal World? Sport Boycott and Athlete Activism for Ceasefire in Gaza. Sociology of Sport Journal, 0(0). 1-11

Sailofsky, D. (2025). The privilege to do it all? Exploring the contradictions of name, image and likeness (NIL) rights for women athletes and women’s sports. International Review for the Sociology of Sport, 60(30, 459-471.

Sailofsky, D., & Bleakley, P. (2024). The Blame Game:  Examining Media Framing, Blame Attribution and Public Response  to the Uvalde School Shooting on Twitter. Journal of Criminal Justice and Popular Culture, 24(1), 31-54.

Craig, M. & Sailofsky, D. (2024). “We cannot win this fight if we don’t acknowledge any such fight exists”: Examining media coverage of Black women’s risk for intimate partner violence. Crime, Media and Culture. 0(0).

Bleakley, P., & Sailofsky, D. (2023). Politics, jokes, and banter amid tragedy: the use of sarcasm and mocking on social media in response to the Uvalde school shooting. The Journal of Social Media in Society, 12(2), 62-81.

Sailofsky, D. (2023). ‘Did the NFL start caring about women a lot more after Ray Rice? Probably not’: White-collar deviance and violence against women in racial capitalist sport. Crime, Media, Culture, 17416590231199816.

Sailofsky, D. (2022). More talent, more leeway: Do violence against women arrests really hurt NFL player careers? Violence Against Women. 1-25

Sailofsky, D., Orr, M, and Darvin, L. (2022). Gender differences in careers and publications in the sport management academy. Sport Management Education Journal, aop

Craig, M, Sailofsky, D. (2022). ‘What happened to me does not define who I am’: Narratives of resilience in survivor victim impact statements. Victims and Offenders, 1-19.

Norman, R., Sailofsky, D.., Darnell, S., Warner, M., and Heal, B. (2022). “Building Back Better”: Seeking an Equitable Return to Sport-for-Development in the Wake of COVID-19. Sociology of Sport Journal, aop.

Sailofsky, D. (2021). Masculinity, cancel culture and woke capitalism: Exploring social media response to Brendan Leipsic’s leaked conversation. International Review for the Sociology of Sport. 1(aop), 1-24

Sailofsky, D. (2021). Change the Game Youth Participation Report. Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment Launchpad. Industry Report.

Sailofsky, D., Orr M. (2020). One Step Forward, Two Tweets Back: Exploring Cultural Backlash and Hockey Masculinity on Twitter. Sociology of Sport Journal. 1 (aop), 1-11.

Sailofsky, D., Shor E. (2020). “It Will Ruin His Career”: Do Does Violence Against Women Really Damage the Careers of NBA Players? Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 0(0), 1-19.

Sailofsky, D. (2020). The Struggle for Freedom from Fear: Contesting Violence Against Women at the Frontiers of Globalization by Alison Brysk. International Review of Victimology, 1-3

Sailofsky, D. (2019). When Rape Was Legal—The Untold History of Sexual Violence During Slavery by Rachel A. Feinstein. Sociological Inquiry, 89(3), 556-558.

Shor E., Sailofsky D. (2019). Human Rights and Terrorism: Issues and Overview. In: Shor E., Hoadley S. (eds) International Human Rights and Counter-Terrorism. International Human Rights. Springer, Singapore.

Current projects

Sailofsky, D., and Simonetto, D. Life after football: Exploring the life and labour of wives and partners of NFL players. Current project

Sailofsky, D. Fogel, C. Rage at the Rink: Parental Aggression in Quebec Minor Hockey. Unpublished book

Rich, K., Warner, M., and Sailofsky, D. SSHRC Partnership Grant with MLSE Launchpad – Sport Governance Workshops. Submitted.

Wang, Y., and Sailofsky, D. NBA pay discrimination based on race and nationality. Submitted to Journal of Sport Economics.

R. Taha Tomure, and Sailofsky, D. Imane Khelif, anti-trans ‘feminism’, and the discursive representation of sex and gender at the 2024 Paris Olympics. Submitted to International Review for the Sociology of Sport

Selected media

The End of Sport Podcast - Sailofsky, D., Εnglish, C., Kalman-Lamb, N. (2024). Episode 137. The Hegemonic vs. Inclusive Masculinity Debate. The End of Sport Podcast

Palestine Solidarity - Chen, C., Rochon, R., Sailofsky, D, Adjepong, A., Ratna, A., Ugolitti, N., Mwaniki, M., (2024). Episode 123. Solidarity with Palestine. The End of Sport Podcast.

CNN’s The Assignment with Audie Cornish Podcast - Sailofsky, D. (2023). Kicking the Football Habit. CNN’s The Assignment with Audie Cornish.

Across the Pond Sports Podcast - Sailofsky, D. (2023). Daniel Sailofsky, PhD. Across the Pond Sports.

Op-Ed in the Guardian - Sailofsky, D. (2022). NFL season is here but I won’t be. I can’t unsee the harm it causes. The Guardian.

Feature in the New York Times - Vrentas, J. (2022). N.F.L Players Pay a Small Price When Accused of Violence Against Women. The New York Times

Burn It All Down Podcast - Sailofsky, D., and Ahmed, S. (2022). Daniel Sailofsky, Sociologist of Sport and Law, On Saying Goodbye to his NFL fandom. Burn It All Down podcast.

Op-Ed with MDXMinds - Sailofsky, D. (2022). Ideal Victimhood, Misogyny, and the Amber Heard Trial. MDX Minds.

The Social Breakdown Podcast - Sailofsky, D. Pantumsinchai, P., Meiser, E (Hosts). (2021, April 14). Sports, Violence Against Women, and Celebrity (no. 417). The Social Breakdown podcast.