Rate My Professor Mark Mierzwinski

Dr Mark Mierzwinski serves as Senior Lecturer in Sociology of Sport in the School of Science, Technology and Health at York St John University. He earned a first-class BA in Sport Studies from York St John University, an MSc in the Sociology of Sport from Loughborough University, a Postgraduate Certificate in Academic Practice from York St John University, and a PhD from the University of Leeds in 2020. His doctoral thesis, titled 'Colbeck High School: A figurational analysis of relationships, identities and behavioural norms in male Physical Education,' examined gendered social processes, power relations, and masculine embodiment in male physical education using a figurational sociological approach. Since joining York St John University as a lecturer in 2010, he has progressed through various leadership roles, including Learning and Teaching Lead in the School of Sport from 2017 to 2019 and in the School of Science, Technology and Health from 2019 to 2022. In 2022, he attained Senior Fellowship of the Higher Education Academy and co-founded the Tackling Welfare in Sport Together (TWiST) research group, which he co-leads with Dr Graeme Law. Since 2023, he has been Course Lead for the MSc Physical Education and Sports Coaching, MSc Sports and Exercise Therapy, and MSc Sport and Exercise Science programs. He supervises postgraduate research students, directs modules such as Duty of Care in Physical Education and Sports Coaching and Advanced Research Methods and Dissemination, and served as an external examiner at Northumbria University from 2019 to 2023.

Mierzwinski's research specializes in figurational sociology, focusing on how social justice is constructed and enacted in sports, education, and healthcare settings, particularly athlete welfare, duty of care, language, discrimination, banter, and bullying. He has led or co-led funded projects on rurality as a health inequality, post-16 access to colleges, and improving racial literacy among undergraduate sport students. He contributed to a funded report on 'Bullying in School Sport' for the Ben Cohen Stand-Up Foundation and a partnership report on combatting loneliness through sport. Key publications include 'A figurational analysis of boys’ and girls’ banter in secondary Physical Education' (2025, Sport, Education and Society, with Matthew Green), 'Women’s Experiences in the Mixed Martial Arts: A Quest for Excitement?' (2014, Sociology of Sport Journal, with Philippa Velija and Dominic Malcolm), 'Extra-curricular sport: A figurational analysis of gendered activity provision, behavioural expectations, and peer group dynamics in one secondary school in England' (2025, European Physical Education Review, with Matthew Green), and '‘It is hard to establish boundaries’: Pupils’ and teachers’ perceptions of blurred lines between banter and bullying in secondary Physical Education' (2025, European Physical Education Review, with Matthew Green). Outside academia, he chairs a longstanding community charity and coaches football and cricket for children, holding memberships in the Professional Footballers Association, Football Association, and England and Wales Cricket Board.