In 2011, National Football League (NFL) quarterback Tim Tebow gripped America when the Denver Broncos reeled off a series of thrilling wins in an unlikely playoff run. Surrounding this stretch of Bronco wins was a media frenzy popularly known as “Tebow Mania”. The media explosion around Tebow can be attributed to his perplexing character and the political, cultural and social circumstances in 2011. This thesis is a critical media discourse analysis of Tebow’s sport star identity. I analyze the ways in which Tebow was described during the heights of his popularity during the 2011 NFL season. I argue that Tebow’s sport star identity naturalized ideologies of rightwing conservatism, (rightwing) conservative Christian fundamentalism and white masculinity into “common sense” notions of social life. To accomplish this, I follow cultural studies methodologies that trace Tebow’s rise to prominence within the context of The Tea Party Movement. I outline two dominant narratives that emerged during Tebow Mania to fabricate an American Dream, underdog story. While the first narrative of polarization criticizes and contemplates Tebow’s muscular Christianity, the counter-narrative repackages the polarization of Tebow by celebrating his white racial identity and conservative American values. / Thesis (Master, Kinesiology & Health Studies) -- Queen's University, 2013-12-27 13:26:52.995

Cette thèse porte sur les neuf principales public schools anglaises entre 1914 et 1951, de la Grande Guerre à la fin de l’expérience travailliste. Elle revient sur la période de l’entre-deux-guerres, dans laquelle sont progressivement remises en cause les valeurs de la masculinité chrétienne promues par les écoles, alors que la critique se fait aussi politique à l’égard d’un système privé perçu comme de plus en plus inégalitaire. Cette étude montre que pendant la Seconde Guerre mondiale, les public schools confrontées aux bombardements, à la mobilisation, à l’évacuation et à l’effort de guerre, apparaissent plus en phase avec la communauté nationale et que les écoles manifestent la volonté de maintenir, au-delà des années de guerre, un esprit de coopération nationale. Ce travail suggère enfin que les réformes éducatives des années 1940, dont le Fleming Report qui recommandait l’admission de 25% d’élèves issus de l’enseignement public, peinent cependant à rapprocher les systèmes privé et public dans la période de l’après-guerre. / This thesis focuses on the nine leading English public schools from 1914 to 1951, i.e. from the Great War to the end of the first Labour majority governments. It looks back on the interwar years, when the Muscular Christian values championed by public schools were progressively challenged, and politicised criticism was levelled at the social exclusiveness of the private system. This study shows that during World War Two, public schools were confronted to bombings, the calling-up of masters, evacuation schemes and the war effort, and appeared more attuned to the national community. Lead players in the field of private education also expressed their wish to maintain a spirit of national cooperation beyond the war years. However, this work finally suggests that the educational reforms of the 1940s, including the Fleming Report, which recommended the admission of 25% of students from state schools, failed to bring public schools more in line with the state system in the post-war period.

This doctoral dissertation examines the intersection of lived religion with sport and fitness, and in particular how fitness facility users navigate modesty values, shame, and identity. How individuals experience fitness spaces and engage in fitness in keeping with their religious practices and beliefs is often unexplored in scholarship about religiosity in sport. This research examines the experiences of individuals who hold intersecting religious and sport identities and whose full inclusion in sport may be affected by their religious beliefs and preferences, such as for single-gender fitness spaces. Using qualitative sociological methods, this study addresses the following questions: How do individuals navigate their religious identities in athletic spaces, and what limitations to full accessibility do they experience? How do fitness space users interpret and live their religious commitments? This thesis argues that athletic space limitations include physical and mental barriers. These barriers are not solely tied to the physical construction of the space itself, nor do they centre solely on religious identity. Facilities can improve accessibility by addressing both kinds of barriers through recommendations derived from this research.