{"id":77606,"date":"2022-04-12T13:53:08","date_gmt":"2022-04-12T17:53:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/?p=77606"},"modified":"2022-04-12T13:53:08","modified_gmt":"2022-04-12T17:53:08","slug":"faculty-focus-millington-brothers-making-their-mark-on-research-at-brock","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/2022\/04\/faculty-focus-millington-brothers-making-their-mark-on-research-at-brock\/","title":{"rendered":"FACULTY FOCUS: Millington brothers making their mark on research at Brock"},"content":{"rendered":"

Note: Faculty Focus is a monthly series that highlights faculty whose compelling passions, innovative ideas and various areas of expertise help weave together the fabric of Brock University\u2019s vibrant community. The full series is available on <\/em>The Brock News<\/em><\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

A passion for sport and an interest in its role in society runs in the Millington family.<\/p>\n

Brothers Brad and Rob Millington, Associate Professor of Sport Management and Assistant Professor of Kinesiology, respectively, have been using their areas of expertise to make their mark in Brock University\u2019s Faculty of Applied Health Sciences and beyond.<\/p>\n

Although education and sport went hand in hand growing up in the Millington household, it took the pair time to realize careers in academia were an appropriate fit.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think either of us thought we would have ended up as professors, and certainly not at the same university,\u201d Rob says. \u201cBut we\u2019ve always been on a path of sport and physical education.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rob, Brad and older brother Scott grew up in Ottawa, where their parents both worked as high school teachers.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur dad was a phys-ed teacher and went on to be the co-ordinator of athletics for the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board, and our mom became a school board superintendent,\u201d Rob says. \u201cWe grew up playing sports and every weekend we were on the road with various teams. We always had an interest in sport and physical activity and the broader social impacts of sport.\u201d<\/p>\n

Scott was the first to head off to Queen\u2019s University to study physical education. Brad, the middle child, followed suit a few years later.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt sort of felt preordained that I would also follow in their footsteps,\u201d Rob, the youngest, quips.<\/p>\n

Though their paths may have had some overlap, each of the Millingtons have made their journey their own.<\/p>\n

Scott, who teaches at the University of Ottawa, went on to become a medical doctor and Brad, following his time at Queen\u2019s, pursued his master\u2019s and PhD at the University of British Columbia.<\/p>\n

While Rob began his studies at Queen\u2019s focused on both physical education and athletic therapy, his interest in the socio-cultural components of sport and phys-ed soon began to impact his direction.<\/p>\n

\u201cOnce Brad was doing his master\u2019s, I thought, \u2018Oh you can really do something with this, you can keep going down this academic path,\u2019\u201d Rob says. \u201cThat\u2019s when I started thinking there could be something bigger here, a bigger interest.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rob went on to complete both his master\u2019s and PhD at Queen\u2019s, realizing along the way that he had found the area he\u2019d hoped to pursue a career in.<\/p>\n

After two post-doctoral fellowships in Toronto, Rob accepted a job in Brock\u2019s Department of Kinesiology in 2019. His focus at the University is on sport and social justice, which aligns with his research interests around sport\u2019s implications in international development and climate change.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt has been a really great fit,\u201d he says of his time at the University.<\/p>\n

Rob was joined by his brother at Brock in 2020.<\/p>\n

Brad had been working at the University of Bath in England for about seven years before joining Brock\u2019s Department of Sport Management.<\/p>\n

\u201cBefore coming to Brock I thought, \u2018This is a really interesting place. People are doing a whole range of creative things, taking sport management in different directions,\u2019\u201d he says. \u201cI felt like I could fit in and since coming here, it has been great working with such excellent colleagues.\u201d<\/p>\n

While Brad and Rob work in different departments, the Faculty of Applied Health Sciences \u201cdoes feel quite interconnected,\u201d Rob says, \u201cso it feels that we are very much working together.\u201d<\/p>\n

Working at the same university has allowed them to consider potential collaborations.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve mostly done our own things and then had some moments of crossover at times,\u201d Brad says. \u201cNow that we\u2019re working in close proximity, it\u2019s much easier to have conversations about teaching and research.\u201d<\/p>\n

For Rob, the biggest draw to a career in academia is that \u201cevery day is a little bit different.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are always new avenues to explore in research, new things emerging that capture your interest and take your research in unexpected ways, and new opportunities to collaborate with colleagues and students,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Brad adds that, in general, a compelling element of research on sport is that people study it from so many disciplinary perspectives.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can take a biomechanical approach, a physiological approach, a psychological approach, a sport management, sociological or historical approach. It just goes on and on,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Brad is currently working on research related to sport and the environment and sport media and technology.<\/p>\n

Rob is looking at sustainable development and sport, trying to better understand the role of sport as a tool of sustainable development and environmental sustainability.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A passion for sport and an interest in its role in society runs in the Millington family.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":38,"featured_media":77607,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[36,7,3319,1,4],"tags":[11163,8634,7488,15,10697,57],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77606"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/38"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=77606"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77606\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":77611,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77606\/revisions\/77611"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/77607"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=77606"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=77606"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=77606"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}