carnegieXchange: School of Sport

Marie Curie Individual Fellowship Success - Rethinking the Health Experience and Active Lifestyles of Chinese Students.

Two senior academics in the School of Sport, Emeritus Professor Anne Flintoff and Dr. Beccy Watson, have won prestigious European Union, Marie Curie Individual Fellowship funding.

Published on 10 May 2018
Professor Anne Flintoff, Dr. Bonnie Pang, Dr. Beccy Watson

The funding - ~£180K - will support Dr. Bonnie Pang, from the Western Sydney University, Australia, to work at Leeds Beckett University for two years. Her research will explore the health and active lifestyles of Chinese students.

The Fellowship will involve Dr. Pang in a programme of advanced research methods offered by colleagues in the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion research centre and elsewhere in the university, designed to extend her expertise in contemporary theorising of ethnicity, race, gender intersectionality and develop her use of innovative research methodologies for working with young people. The Fellowship will also help build leadership and pedagogical skills for her to lead future inter-disciplinary research projects and deliver high quality, post graduate teaching and research supervision.

Dr Watson

Dr Beccy Watson

After completing an undergraduate degree with honours, and Master of Philosophy at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, Dr. Pang continued her research study with Professor Doune Macdonald at the University of Queensland in Australia. She then took a research and teaching position with the Western Sydney University, and later became a school-based member of the renowned Institute for Culture and Society at the university.

Already an experienced researcher, with £267,000 of research funding and academic scholarship to her name, it was during her academic sabbatical leave in residence at the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Research Centre at Leeds Beckett, and with mentorship from Professor Anne Flintoff that led Dr. Pang to apply for the Fellowship.

Prof Anne

Professor Anne Flintoff

Dr. Pang’s research aims to promote Chinese students’ health and physical activity, and develop best practice guidelines for schools and communities.

Rising immigration rates into the European Union has brought increased cultural and linguistic diversity, but also increasing levels of inequalities and the associated challenges of their alleviation. My research will focus on innovative and participatory methods to explore, represent, and rethink our ways of understanding and promoting health and physical activity with Chinese youth in the UK.

I’m delighted to have won such a prestigious and competitive Fellowship and I’m excited at the prospect of spending two years at Leeds Beckett University, working with so many internationally renowned colleagues working in the area of race and gender inequalities and social justice issues in physical education, physical activity, and health.”

Dr Pang’s application was one of 1511 applications submitted in the social science category for the 2017 Marie Curie Individual Fellowships, where just 14% were funded. The Commissioner for Education, Culture, Youth and Sport, Tibor Navracsics, said:

"We are today recognising the potential of excellent, internationally mobile researchers who faced intense international competition to be awarded with a fellowship. The projects they will work on will help tackle some of the biggest challenges our societies face, helping to build a resilient, fair, competitive Europe."

The Fellowship covers Dr. Pang’s salary and living costs for two years, funding to support research, and monies to cover training provided by Leeds Beckett University.

Professor Anne Flintoff

Anne Flintoff is a former Professor of Physical Education and Sport in the Carnegie School of Sport. Her teaching, research and consultancy centred on issues of equity and social inclusion, particularly gender and race.

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