Publications

Journal Articles

Willson, E., Wensel, S., & Kerr, G. (2026). Learning from young Canadians: Perspectives on reporting and disclosing interpersonal violence in high-performance sport. Journal of Aggression, Maltreatment & Trauma, 1–25. https://doi.org/10.1080/10926771.2026.2680906

Kerr, G., Gurgis, J., Wensel, S., Willson, E., Schwender, J., & Porter, J. (2025). Is sport safe with safe sport? A critical examination. Psychology of Sport and Exercise, 81, 102964. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychsport.2025.102964

Wensel, S., Kerr, G., & Tamminen, K. A. (2024). “The abuse of minors you witness or experience”: A qualitative study of former professional ballet school students' characterizations of maltreatment. Child Abuse & Neglect, 155, 106982. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chiabu.2024.106982

MacPherson, E., Battaglia, A., Kerr, G., Wensel, S., McGee, S., Milne, A., Principe, F., & Willson, E. (2022). Evaluation of publicly accessible child protection in sport education and reporting initiatives. Social Sciences, 11(7), 310, 1-17. https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci11070310

Book Chapters

Wensel, S., Kerr, G., & MacPherson, E. (2025). Advancing our understanding of child maltreatment and safeguarding: Implications for sport and dance. In Hartill, M. & Rulofs, B. (Eds.), Child abuse in sport: Critical perspectives (Research in the sociology of sport, Vol. 25, pp. 49-70). Emerald. https://doi.org/10.1108/S1476-285420250000025004

MacPherson, E., Wensel, S., & Kerr, G. (2025). From research to practice: Safeguarding athletes in online environments. In V. A. Goodyear & A. Bundon (Eds.) Routledge handbook of digital technologies in sport, exercise and physical education (ch. 24). Taylor & Francis.

https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003411758

Thesis

Wensel, S. (2023). The professional ballet school ‘bubble’: Former students’ experiences in (potentially) harmful environments. (Publication No. 30687711) [Master's thesis, University of Toronto]. ProQuest Dissertations Publishing. https://utoronto.scholaris.ca/server/api/core/bitstreams/7ece9f77-5651-41f3-a082-4f0c5c366960/content

Media

Kerr, G., MacPherson, E., & Wensel, S. (2024, September 12). Online public shaming of women athletes at the 2024 Paris Olympics highlights gender-based violence. The Conversation. https://theconversation.com/online-public-shaming-of-women-athletes-at-the-2024-paris-olympics-highlights-gender-based-violence-237104

Conference Presentations

Presentations, Symposiums, Panels, and Posters

Wensel, S., Nepon, T., & Kerr, G. (accepted). Feeling valued or invisible: Mattering and links with mental health among dancers and athletes [Presentation]. 36th Annual International Association for Dance Medicine & Science (IADMS) Conference. Victorian College of the Arts, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia.

Wensel, S. & Kerr, G. (2026, May 14). Using a relational diagram method: Design choices, challenges, and reflections [Presentation]. International Conference for Qualitative Research in Sport and Exercise, May 11-14, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada.

Wensel, S. (2026, May 13). Thirteen ways: Accessing embodied understandings of theory and topic through poem writing and creative writing [Presentation]. In Cavallerio, F., Kousalova, M., Middleton, T., & Wensel, S., Theory, self, and story: Exploring the use of poetic practices as embodied and thought-provoking methods [Symposium]. International Conference for Qualitative Research in Sport and Exercise, May 11-14, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada.

Ritondo, T., Porter, J., Wensel, S. (2026, May 12). Peripheral knowledges? A semi-systematic review of feminist approaches to safe sport research design [Poster]. International Conference for Qualitative Research in Sport and Exercise, May 11-14, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada.

Brien, A., Wensel., S. (co-presenter), Brun., A., De Souza, D., Kerr., G., Soulard, A., & Parent, S. (2025, November 9). Interpersonal violence in educational facilities for the performing arts: A scoping review. Healthy Dancer Canada Conference, École Supérieure, November 8-8, Montréal, Canada.

Wensel S., Willson, E, & Kerr G. (2025, June 20). Young Canadian athletes’ perspectives on disclosing and reporting interpersonal violence [Presentation]. International Congress on Safe Sport Research, June 18-20, Quebec City, Canada.

Kerr, G., Gurgis, J., Willson, E., Wensel, S., & Schwender, J. (2025, June 18). Rethinking safe sport: A critical examination [Symposium Presentation]. International Congress on Safe Sport Research, June 18-20, Quebec City, Canada.

Wensel, S. & Kerr, G. (2024, November 30). An urgency for change and the agency to change: A children’s rights approach to former professional ballet school students’ recommendations for change [Presentation]. Healthy Dancer Canada Conference, University of Calgary.

Milne, A., Magrath, J., McGee, S., Wensel, S., & Stirling, A. (2024, November 30). Trauma-informed research and practice in safe dance [Panel Discussion]. Healthy Dancer Canada Conference. University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta, Canada.

Wensel, S. & Kerr, G. (2024, July 31). A new researcher’s journey navigating ethical choices in reflexive qualitative research about experiences of harm in dance [Presentation]. International Conference on Qualitative Research in Sport and Exercise, University of Bath, Bath, United Kingdom.

Kerr, G. & Wensel, S. (2024, July 16). Controlling coaching, psychological abuse, or both? [Presentation]. European Congress of Sport and Exercise Psychology (FEPSAC), Innsbruck, Austria.

Wensel, S. & Kerr, G. (2024, July 15). Child maltreatment at professional ballet schools: Hiding behind the cloak of ‘authoritarian pedagogy’? [Poster]. European Congress of Sport and Exercise Psychology (FEPSAC), Innsbruck, Austria.

Wensel, S. & Kerr, G. (2023, October 12). “Everyone should have felt safe”: Former professional ballet students’ experiences of maltreatment [Presentation]. 33rd Annual International Association for Dance Medicine & Science (IADMS) Conference. Ohio State University, Columbus, United States.

Wensel, S. & Kerr, G. (2023, August 16). The experiences of former live-in professional ballet school students: Implications for care ethics and safeguarding [Presentation]. 2023 World Congress of Sociology of Sport, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Canada.

Wensel, S. & Kerr, G. (2023, June 1).There's something so pervasive”: A social norms approach to context specific, covert messages about disordered eating at professional ballet schools [Presentation]. North American Society for the Psychology of Sport and Physical Activity Conference 2023, Toronto, Canada.

Wensel, S., Milne, A., Kerr, G., & Stirling, A. (2022, October 31). An analysis of online dance safeguarding initiatives [Presentation]. 32nd Annual International Association for Dance Medicine & Science Conference, University of Limerick, Limerick, Ireland.

Wensel, S., Dwyer, R. J., Dunn, E. W. (2021, April 9). Making conversations click: Using a visual turn-taking cue to improve conversations on video calls [Virtual Presentation]. 23rd Psychology Undergraduate Conference (PURC), University of British Columbia, Canada.

Wensel, S. (2019, April 6). Comparing subdisciplines: Modalities in sport and social psychology [Presentation]. 8th Annual Arts Studies in Research and Writing Conference (ASRW), University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada.