Michael Gard
About
Michael Gard is associate professor of sport, health and physical education in the School of Human Movement and Nutrition Sciences at the University of Queensland. He teaches, researches and writes about how the human body is and has been used, experienced, educated and governed.
He is the author of four books including The Obesity Epidemic: Science, Morality and Ideology (2005) and The End of the Obesity Epidemic (2011). His work includes research projects into the science of obesity, the history of sport, and the sexual and gender politics of dance education.
He is currently the lead researcher in an Australian Research Council funded research project called ‘Small technology, big data and the business of young people’s health: an international investigation of the digitisation of school health and physical education’. This project is investigating the ways in which digital technology is being used to measure, monitor and make money out of children’s health at school.
With Carolyn Pluim from the University of Northern Illinois, he has recently completed a new book for Rowman & Littlefield about the historical and contemporary relationships between schools and public health policy. Amongst other things, this work considers the evolution of public health practice and policy in American schools as well as the ways in which contemporary health policies make schools and children increasingly available for corporate exploitation.
