Broadly, my research investigates and challenges social inequalities in the criminal legal system and sporting world. I seek to document how the ways we think, talk about, and practice crime, deviance, and punishment (re)produce power relations, legitimate governance strategies, and exclude large portions of the social body. I am currently the principal investigator on a SSHRC Insight Grant Project titled “Policing & Post-Pandemic Participation in Sport and Physical Activity.”
Education
- Ph.D. in Sociology – University of Toronto (2015)
- M.A. in Criminology – University of Toronto (2009)
- B.A. with Honours in Criminology – York University (2008)
Teaching
- SOC2256: Sociology of Corrections
- SOC2266: Crime and Society
- SOC3379: Crime, Punishment, and Pop Culture
- SOC4409: Seminar in Criminological Theory and Research
Research
Social Control, Critical Criminology, Media, Sport, Criminological Theory
Selected Publications
Edited Books
Silva, Derek and Liam Kennedy. 2022. Power Played: A Critical Criminology of Sport. Vancouver: UBC Press.
Peer-reviewed journal articles
Norman, Mark, Derek Silva, Liam Kennedy, and William Cipolli III. 2024. ‘Essential for the Soul’?: Leisure as a Flashpoint During COVID-19 Lockdowns in Ontario, Canada. Annals of Leisure Research 27(1): 167-186.
King, Tyler J., Joshua D.M. Shaw, and Liam Kennedy. 2024. Documenting the Document: The Forensic Hospital Report and its “Knowledge Moves”. Social & Legal Studies 33(3): 309-327.
Kennedy, Liam, Joshua D.M. Shaw, and Tyler J. King. 2023. Disciplinary Paternalism and Resistance in Ontario’s Forensic Mental Health System. Critical Criminology 31(3): 843-858.
Shaw, Joshua D.M., Tyler J. King, and Liam Kennedy. 2023. Constructing Risk Through Jurisdictional Talk: The Ontario Review Board Process Under Part XX.1 of the Criminal Code. Canadian Journal of Law & Society 38(2): 180-200.
Kennedy, Liam and Madelaine Coelho (equal co-authorship). 2022. Security, Suspicion, and Surveillance? There’s an App for That. Surveillance and Society 20(2): 127-141.
Kennedy, Liam. 2021. “Whenever There’s Trouble, Just Yelp for Help”: Crime, Conservation, and Corporatization in Paw Patrol. Crime, Media, Culture 17(2): 255-270.
Kennedy, Liam and Derek Silva (equal co-authorship). 2021. ‘Knuckle-Dragging Thugs’: Civilizing Processes and the Biosocial Revolution in the National Hockey League. Crime, Media, Culture 17(1): 105-126.
Kennedy, Liam. 2020. Postwar Interpersonal Violence: Reflections and New Research Directions. Aggression and Violent Behavior 53: 101429.
Kennedy, Liam and Derek Silva (equal co-authorship). 2020. “Discipline That Hurts”: Punitive Logics and Governance in Sport. Punishment & Society 22(5): 658-680.
Kennedy, Liam and Madelaine Coelho (equal co-authorship). 2020. ‘Absolutely the Worst Drug I’ve Ever Seen’: Risk, Governance, and the Construction of the Illicit Fentanyl ‘Crisis’. Theoretical Criminology 24(4): 612-632.
Kennedy, Liam, Derek Silva, William Cipolli III, and Madelaine Coelho. 2019. ‘We Are All Broncos’: Hockey, Tragedy, and the Formation of Canadian Identity. Sociology of Sport Journal 36(3): 189-202.
Kennedy, Liam. 2018. ‘Man I’m All Torn Up Inside’: Analyzing Audience Responses to Making a Murderer. Crime, Media, Culture 14(3): 391-408.
Gartner, Rosemary and Liam Kennedy. 2018. War and Postwar Violence. Crime and Justice 47(1): 1-67.
Kennedy, Liam and Jenna Valleriani (equal co-authorship). 2017. ‘Everybody Loves a Redemption Story Around Election Time’: Rob Ford and Media Construction of Substance Misuse and Recovery. Canadian Journal of Criminology and Criminal Justice 59(4): 461-497.
Kennedy, Liam. 2017. ‘Today They Kill With The Chair Instead Of The Tree’: Remembering and Forgetting Slavery at a Plantation Prison. Theoretical Criminology 21(2): 133-150.
Kennedy, Liam. 2016. ‘He Must Learn What Being A Man Is All About’: Negotiating the Male Code at the Louisiana State Penitentiary. Deviant Behavior 37(2): 151-166.
Kennedy, Liam. 2013. ‘Longtermer Blues’: Penal Politics, Reform, and Carceral Experiences at Angola. Punishment & Society 15(3): 304-322.
Kruttschnitt, Candace, Anja Dirkzwager, and Liam Kennedy. 2013. Strangers in a Strange Land: Recounting the Experiences of a Racialized Group of Foreign National Inmates. British Journal of Sociology 64(3): 478-500.
Richardson, Chris and Liam Kennedy. 2012. “Gang” as Empty Signifier in Contemporary Canadian Newspapers. Canadian Journal of Criminology and Criminal Justice 54(4): 443-479.