Dr James Brighton

Research Projects

• An investigation into the performance, health and wellbeing benefits of implementing CrossFit and CrossFit Kids programs to the young population.. Researcher(s): Mr James Perry. Supervisor(s): Dr James Brighton, Professor Dikaia Chatziefstathiou. [Postgraduate Research Project (past)]
• Body perfectionism in fitness cultures: critical feminist perspectives. Researcher(s): Dr Amy Clark. Supervisor(s): Dr James Brighton. [Postgraduate Research Project (past)]
• Bodybuilding as a Means of Articulating Post-Traumatic Growth - The Hero’s Journey. Researcher(s): Ms Emma Foster. Supervisor(s): Dr James Brighton, Dr Mark Uphill. [Postgraduate Research Project]
• Doctoral Research Project. Researcher(s): Mr Nyall Simms. Supervisor(s): Dr James Brighton, Dr Laura Gubby. [Postgraduate Research Project (past)]
• Sideline behaviour in football and how this impacts participation for children and coaches. Researcher(s): Mrs Jeannie Goulding. Supervisor(s): Dr Laura Gubby, Dr Rachel Wray, Dr James Brighton. [Postgraduate Research Project]
• Staff Retention and Health and Care Staff Wellbeing. Researcher(s): Mr Dave Hearn. Supervisor(s): Professor Tony Lavender, Dr James Brighton, Professor Margie Callanan. [Postgraduate Research Project]
• The impact of sideline behaviour on children’s and coaches’ participation in sport. Researcher(s): Mrs Jeannie Goulding. Supervisor(s): Dr Laura Gubby, Dr Rachel Wray, Dr James Brighton. [Postgraduate Research Project]
• Towards a Cyborg Identity. Researcher(s): Miss Taylor Williams. Supervisor(s): Dr James Brighton, Dr Laura Gubby. [Postgraduate Research Project]

• “No one wants to be the washed-up ex-cricketer sitting at the bar getting pissed talking of the good old days”: A narrative analysis of retirement as experienced by male professional cricketers in England Brighton, J., Lusted, J., Lingam-Willgoss, C., Hoad, A., (08 May 2025): SAGE Journals. [Journal article]
• Implementing trauma-informed approaches to coaches’ workplaces in sport to enhance their safety and wellbeing: A critical commentary McMahon, J., McGannon, J., Brighton, J., (11 Apr 2025): Taylor & Francis. [Journal article]
• The Dis/appearing Sporting Body: The Complex Embodiment of Disabled Athletes Powis, B., Brighton, J., Townsend, R., (27 Mar 2025): SAGE Publications. [Journal article]
• ‘My body was no longer a problem’: Electric mountain biking, disability, and the cultural politics of green exercise. Cherrington, J., Brighton, J., (24 Sep 2024): Wiley. [Journal article]
• Researching disability sport: Theory, method, practice, (26 Aug 2024). Abingdon: Routledge, Taylor and Francis. [Book]
• Trauma and spinal cord injury: Reflections from research into physical activity and sport Brighton, J., Williams, T., (10 Jun 2024), Trauma-Informed Research in Sport, Exercise, and Health. Abingdon: Routledge, Taylor and Francis. [Book chapter]
• Using sensory methods for researching disability in physical education. Brighton, J., Powis, B., Gubby, L., Routledge Handbook of Qualitative Methods for Researching Disability in Physical Education . London: Routledge, Taylor and Francis. [Book chapter]
• Who is “us” in “nothing about us without us”? Rethinking the politics of disability research Inckle, K., Brighton, J., Sparkes, A. C., (12 Jun 2023): Society for Disability Studies (SDS). [Journal article]
• Gym bodies: Exploring fitness cultures Brighton, J., Wellard, I., Clark, A., (29 Apr 2022). London: Routledge, Taylor and Francis. [Book]
• Moving beyond ‘models’: Theorizing physical disability in sport Brighton, J., Townsend, R., Campbell, N., Williams, T., (04 Jan 2021): Human Kinetics. [Journal article]
• ‘I am proud of my back’: an ethnographic study of the motivations and meanings of body modification as identity work among athletes with spinal cord injury Sparkes, A., Brighton, James, Inckle, Kay, (14 May 2020, 04 May 2021): Taylor & Francis. [Journal article]
• Growth and adversity in disability sport following spinal cord injury Brighton, J., (29 Jul 2020), Growth Following Adversity in Sport: A Mechanism to Positive Change. London: Routledge, Taylor and Francis. [Book chapter]
• Autonomic dysreflexia and boosting in disability sport: exploring the subjective meanings, management strategies, moral justifications, and perceptions of risk among male, spinal cord injured, wheelchair athletes. Sparkes, A., Brighton, James, (09 Jun 2019, 26 May 2020): Taylor & Francis. [Journal article]
• Disability, spinal cord injury, and strength and conditioning: sociological considerations Brighton, J., (01 Dec 2018): Wolters Kluwer. [Journal article]
• Using interviews to explore experiences of disability in sport and physical activity Brighton, J., Williams, T., (18 Jul 2018), Researching Difference in Sport and Physical Activity: Routledge. [Book chapter]
• ‘It’s a part of me’: an ethnographic exploration of becoming a disabled sporting cyborg following spinal cord injury Sparkes, A., Brighton, J., Inckle, K., (23 Oct 2017): Routledge. [Journal article]
• Imperfect perfection and wheelchair bodybuilding: challenging ableism or reproducing normalcy? Sparkes, A., Brighton, J., Inckle, K., (30 Oct 2017): SAGE. [Journal article]
• Embodied experiences within the context of disability Brighton, J.. [Journal article]
• Gym Bodies (2): CrossFit Brighton, J.. [Journal article]
• Impaired sporting bodies and father-son relationships Brighton, J.. [Journal article]
• Researching physical disability in sport: Reflections from an (able)bodied ethnographer Brighton, J., (04 Sep 2015), Researching Embodied Sport: Exploring Movement Cultures: Routledge. [Book chapter]
• (Dis)ability by design: Narratives of bodily perfectionism Brighton, J., Sparkes, A., Disability Sport Conference 2014: Changing Lives, Changing Perceptions?. [Speech]
• (Dis)ability by design: Narratives of bodily perfectionism amongst wheelchair athletes Brighton, J., Sparkes, A., 4th International Conference on Qualitative Research in Sport and Exercise. [Conference paper]
• (Dis)ability sport as an opportunity for empowerment or a reproduction of gender stereotypes? A life history of a female Paralympian Brighton, J., Sparkes, A., Sporting Females: past, present and future 2014. [Speech]
• (Dis)abled athletes as the “Ambassadors of transhumanism” Brighton, J., Sparkes, A., Normalcy 2014- Theorising Normalcy and the Mundane: More Questions of the Human. [Speech]
• Disabled sporting bodies as sexual beings: Reflections and challenges Sparkes, A., Brighton, J., Inckle, K., (2014), Routledge Handbook of Sport, Gender and Sexuality. Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge. [Book chapter]