NOTE: This is one in a series of articles on Brock’s 2023-24 Horizon Graduate Student Scholarship recipients. Read other stories in the series on The Brock News.

For Katrynne (Kat) Rice (BA ’23), all voices matter and deserve to be preserved in history.

When she became interested in women’s sport history as an undergraduate student at Brock, Rice knew immediately there were gaps in the history of Canada’s national game.

An avid hockey fan, Rice has a long history with the sport both as a player and through her father, who was coach of the University of Windsor’s men’s hockey team and led the team to victory in the 1997-98 Queen’s Cup.

Now completing a master’s in History at Brock, Rice is researching the experiences of queer women in recreational ice hockey in Niagara and providing a platform for their voices to be heard.

Rice has received a Horizon Graduate Student Scholarship in recognition of her sport oral history research, which harnesses her digital preservation skills to centre the voices of queer women and contribute to Brock’s growing repository of oral interviews.

“Having the opportunity to tell the story of queer women in the history of hockey — a community that historically has been so overlooked — is an incredible step forward,” she said.

Through oral interviews, which involve collecting, interpreting and preserving memories of people in communities in their own voice, Rice is putting the spotlight on recreational players, coaches, organizers and officials. She is eager to examine how the experiences of queer women relate to their sense of belonging within their own team, their league and their country.

“Given that hockey is such an important part of the Canadian experience, I hope my  findings will shed new light on ways to examine Canada’s national game,” she said.

Rice said conducting oral interviews is a key aspect of her research because they are a successful methodology for researching those who have been marginalized or excluded from historical texts in the past.

“So many parts of a story can get left out when it is only shared through text, like the tone of voice or speaking cadence. For a community that for so long has not had a platform to be heard, it matters that they use their own voice to communicate their experiences,” she said.

Her interviews will be accessible to the public through Brock’s Sport Oral History Archive (SOHA).

“It is vital that these stories be available beyond the academic realm; community members need to be able to access this type of information,” Rice said.

Looking to the future, Rice hopes to pursue doctoral studies and expand her research to provincial and national contexts.

While community-level hockey can be an extremely positive experience, Rice also expects to uncover experiences of exclusion and isolation, especially at the national level.

“Hockey touches people’s lives in many ways. I am thrilled to have the opportunity to contribute to a more inclusive history of the sport I love,” she said.