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Overview

Professor Brett Smith

Professor of Disability and Physical Activity


Affiliations
AffiliationTelephone
Professor of Disability and Physical Activity in the Department of Sport and Exercise Sciences
Fellow of the Durham Research Methods Centre
Co-Lead of the Narrative Practices Lab, Discovery Research Platform in the Institute for Medical Humanities
Fellow of the Institute for Medical Humanities

Biography

Brett Smith was a Professor at Loughborough University and then at the University of Birmingham before joining Durham in 2019 as a Professor of Disability and Physical Activity and a Director of Research (2019-2024). In addition to being an author of the UK Chief Medical Officers’ (CMOs) Physical Guidelines (2019), Brett led the first UK CMOs Physical Activity Guidelines for disabled adults (2018) and disabled children (2022). Working with disabled people and disability organisations, this work also set new standards for communicating national disability physical activity guidelines by co-producing them. Brett continues to advise the UK Government Department of Health and Social Care as well as organisations, like ParalympicsGB, Sport England, and the German Government Federal Ministry of Health on disability, physical activity, sport, and co-production. 

Brett is currently the principal investigator of the award-winning transdisciplinary project Moving Social Work. With Disability Rights UK, this 5-year £1m+ funded co-produced research is about embedding physical activity in social work education and practice so that these professionals can work with disabled people to be more physically active. Brett is also the co-lead of the Narrative Practices Lab as part of the Wellcome funded Discovery Research Platform  for Medical Humanities.

In addition to expertise on disability, physical activity, and co-production, Brett is a methodologist in qualitative research. He has a particular interest in narrative inquiry, rigor, and arts-based research. Brett is the co-founder and former President of the International Society of Qualitative Research in Sport and Exercise. He is the founder and former Editor of the journal Qualitative Research in Sport, Exercise and Health. Brett has also supported the advancement of qualitative research by not only serving as a journal Associate Editor for Psychology of Sport and Exercise (9 years) and Sport, Exercise and Performance Psychology (4 years). He has served on 13 journal Editorial Boards, including currently on Qualitative Research in Psychology, Methods in Psychology, and Qualitative Inquiry. Brett is the co-editor of the Routledge book series Qualitative Research in Sport and Physical Activity. He is regularly invited to deliver international keynotes and contribute to prestigious handbooks, including the Sage Handbook of Qualitative Research (6th Ed - 2024) and The APA Handbook of Research Methods in Psychology (2nd Ed – 2024). He has guest edited 3 journal special issues, most recently, with Dr Javier Monforte, on critical posthumanities and postqualitative inquiry. The impact of Brett’s work can be further found in him being consistently a Top 100 Cited Researcher in the World in the Sport Sciences. He is a REF2029 Panel Member for Unit 24 (Sport and Exercise Sciences, Leisure and Tourism).

Learn more about Moving Social Work here

Narrative Practices Lab here

ResearchGate papers here

Scopus profile here

Google Scholar profile here

BlueSky @brettsmithprof.bsky.social 

PhD supervision Brett welcomes applications from potential PhD students interested in the psycho-social aspects of disability, sport, physical activity, and/or social justice.

Research interests

  • Disability
  • Physical Activity
  • Co-production
  • Qualitative Research

Publications

Authored book

Chapter in book

Edited book

Journal Article

Other (Print)

Supervision students