Sam McKegney

Bio 

My name is Sam McKegney, and I’m a settler scholar of Indigenous literatures and the decolonization of sport. I grew up in Anishinaabe territory on the Saugeen Peninsula along the shores of Lake Huron and have lived most of my adult life as an uninvited guest in the lands of the Haudenosaunee and Anishinaabe Peoples here in Kingston/Katarakwi. My teaching and research seek to register the ways in which Indigenous literary artists and activists: (1) interrogate settler colonialism; (2) imagine modes of sociality that exceed the confines of the settler state; and (3) provoke extra-textual responses from Indigenous, settler, and diasporic readers that might contribute to decolonization. 

For the past decade, I have been working in Indigenous sport studies, and, with Janice Forsyth, I currently co-direct the Indigenous Hockey Research Network. I am cross-appointed with the School of Kinesiology and Health Studies, as well as Cultural Studies, here at Queen’s. I am actively recruiting Indigenous graduate students interested in sport, gender, cultural production, and decolonization. My recent article, “Cowboys & Canadians: Ruminating on the Wounded,” has been engaged over 17,000 times and is available in a digitally enhanced version, as well as on Spotify as an audiobook. 

I’ve received the Queen’s Award for Excellence in Research, the Human Rights Initiative Award, the Graduate Co-ordinator of the Year, the Fourth-Year’s Choice Teaching Award, and the Dean’s Teaching and Learning Innovation Award, as well as Canadian Literature’s prize for essay of the year.

Research Interests 

• Indigenous literatures
• Decolonization of sport
• Indigenous masculinities
• hockey culture and Canadian nationalism
• Indigenous governance and its pursuit through art
• carceral composition
• literary activism
• Canadian literature

Books

Carrying the Burden of Peace: Reimagining Indigenous Masculinities Through Story

• University of Regina Press, 2021
• Finalist, Gabrielle Roy Prize 2021
• Short-listed, Saskatchewan Book Awards Publishing in Education 

Masculindians: Conversations about Indigenous Manhood

• University of Manitoba Press, 2017
• Honourable Mention, Outstanding Scholarship Award from the Canadian Women’s and Gender Studies Association 2018

Magic Weapons: Aboriginal Writers Remaking Community after Residential School

• University of Manitoba Press, 2007
• Finalist, Gabrielle Roy Award 2007
• Outstanding Academic Title, CHOICE: Current Reviews for Academic Libraries 2008

Books in Progress 

• Threshold: The Joanne Page Lectures, 2012-24, co-editors Phil Hall and Sam McKegney (McGill-Queen’s University Press, forthcoming 2027)
• Sovereign Ice: Critical Reflections on First Nations, Métis and Inuit Hockey, co-editors Sam McKegney and Christine O’Bonsawin (University of Regina Press, forthcoming 2028)

Recent Publications and Short Films 

• 2026: “Reading a Nation through a Game through a City through a Book: Decolonial hockey in Kyle Edwards’ Small Ceremonies.” Aethlon: The Journal of Sport Literature. (accepted and forthcoming)           
• 2026: With Kalley Armstrong, Ryan Francis, Marian Jacko, and Jaydlin Spooner. “Skating Sovereignty: The Past and Future of Indigenous Girls’ and Women’s Hockey.” Journal of Sport History. (accepted and forthcoming)
• 2026: With Smokii Sumac. “Naked & Dreaming Forward: Reimagining Indigenous Masculinities through Story.” In Indigeneity and Pathways to Other Knowledges. Editors Sinfree Mokoni, Dorothy Takyiawaa, Vicky Khasandi-Telewa, and Alissa J. Hartig. Multilingual Matters Series. (accepted and forthcoming)
• 2026: With Jordan Koch and Robert Henry. “From Locker Rooms to Change Rooms: The Beardy’s Blackhawks and Transformative Hockey Spaces.” International Review for the Sociology of Sport. June 5, 2026.
• 2026: "Cowboys and Canadians: Ruminating on the Wounded Game I Love.” Journal of Emerging Sport Studies Volume 13, January 2026.
• 2025: Against the Current: Everett Sanipass, Directed by Desmond Simon, Wabanaki Media. Produced by Sam McKegney and Michael Gauthier. 8 minutes. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RG84u4HTxH8 
• 2023: With Davina McLeod, Darren Zanussi, and Shane Keepness. “‘who am I… a hockey player’: Indigenous Generosity and the Transformative Power of Education in Hockey Spaces,” Sociology of Sport Journal 40.3. (2023) 272-280.
• 2023: With Johannah Bird, Otoniya Juliane Okot Bitek, Warren Cariou, Dallas Hunt, and Kristina Fagan Bidwell, “Storying Responsibilities: Visiting Over Deanna Reder’s Autobiography As Indigenous Intellectual Tradition.” Canadian Literature, vol. 253, 2023, pp. 160-179. 
• 2022:The Genderless Space: Masculinity, Indigenous Poetics, and Becoming, Directed and Produced by Robyn Carruthers. Featuring Smokii Sumac and Sam McKegney. Canadian Literature website. 1 hour. https://canlit.ca/article/the-genderless-space/ 
• 2022: With Michelle Coupal. “Called to Relationship and Reckoning through Story: Reflections on Reading, Teaching, and Writing about Residential School Literatures,” Studies in Canadian Literature, vol. 46.2, special issue on Indigenous Literary Arts of Truth and Redress, pp. 25-46.
• 2021: With Mika Rathwell and Robert Henry. “Opportunities Denied: The Divergent Resonance of Opportunity for Indigenous and Non-Indigenous Hockey Players with the Now-Disbanded Beardy’s Blackhawks.” Sociology of Sport Journal, vol. 38.4, 2021.
• 2021: With Robert Henry, Jordan Koch, and Mika Rathwell. “Manufacturing Compliance with Anti-Indigenous Racism in Canadian Hockey: The Case of Beardy’s Blackhawks.” Canadian Ethnic Studies Journal, vol 53.3, pp. 29-50, 2021.

Contact Information

• For departmental matters: englhead@queensu.ca 
• For research and teaching matters: sam.mckegney@queensu.ca