Michael Gard

Dr Michael Gard is an Honorary Associate Professor in the School of Human Movement and Nutrition Sciences at the University of Queensland. His academic identity straddles critical public health, sociology of physical education, and cultural studies of the body, with a particular focus on obesity discourse, digital health technologies, ageing and sport, and gender/sexuality in movement cultures.

Research interests span:

• Critical obesity studies and the politics of public health
• Digital health, big-data and surveillance in schools
• Masculinities, dance and physical education
• Sport and physical activity across the lifespan
• Environmental attunement and eco-justice pedagogies

Across more than two decades Gard has interrogated how scientific knowledge, policy and popular culture intersect to shape bodies, identities and educational practices. His work questions taken-for-granted assumptions in health promotion, critiques neoliberal logics within school fitness regimes, and explores how older adults negotiate gendered narratives of sport participation.

His recent journal articles (2021-2024) evidence a shift toward environmental and postdigital concerns, analysing how place, land, water and non-human animals figure in health/PE curricula, while continuing to scrutinize digital technologies that quantify and commercialise children’s bodies.

Books & major works include five sole- or co-authored monographs such as Schools and Public Health: Past, Present, Future (2014) and The End of the Obesity Epidemic (2011), alongside over 30 book chapters that extend critical conversations across sociology, education and public health.

Collaborations & teams are visible through extensive co-authorship with scholars across Australia, North America and Europe, indicating sustained engagement with interdisciplinary networks in critical obesity studies, physiotherapy education, and active-ageing research.