Dr. Joseph Recupero
Education:
BAA, Ryerson University
MA, Ryerson University
PhD, OISE/University of Toronto
Areas of Expertise:
Joe Recupero is an Associate Professor in the Sport Media program. He teaches all years of multi-camera studio production, fourth year Practicum, and documentary production.
He has worked on a total of 16 Olympic and Paralympic Games (most recently producing Figure Skating for the PyeongChang Winter Olympics and Gymnastics for the 2016 Rio Games) as well as numerous Commonwealth and Pan American Games. Joe has produced World Championships and World Cups in almost every sport across Canada and around the world during his tenure at CBC TV Network Sports.
In addition to producing live sporting events, Joe also produced, directed and wrote a number of long-form sports documentaries including "The Circus is in Town: 50 Years of Hockey Night in Canada", which was nominated for a Banff Rockie Award. He also produced and directed "The Life and Times of Sandra Schmirler" which won a Special Jury Prize at the Yorkton Film and Television Festival. He produced an independent documentary on Canada's Wheelchair Rugby team and their selection process for the 2008 Beijing Paralympics. In 2016 Joe collaborated with psychiatrists and researchers at St. Michael's Hospital to produce an hour long documentary, "A Dark Room", which focused on concussions in hockey and the mental health effects that can result. "A Dark Room" was acquired by the National Film Board of Canada as part of their Education division and their Virtual Classroom initiative as well as the CBC Documentary Channel.
Joe's creative work continues to focus around equity, diversity and inclusion in sports and media with an emphasis on the 2SLGBT+ community. In 2018 he produced a creative film on those very issues with the students in Sport Media called "The Sport Project".
Joe's external service commitments have included Media Director on the Volunteer Board of Directors for the annual Pride and Remembrance Run.
Joe was the Co-Chair of the Tenth International Sport and Society conference which was hosted by the RTA School of Media in June 2019. The conference themes included: Sport Media Vectors- Digitization, Expanding Audiences and the Globalization of Live Sport and he co-edited a book from the papers and presentations at this conference. Joe also was Co-Chair for the 2023 Diversity in Organizations, Communities and Nations International conference that was also held at TMU in June 2023.
Joe was the recipient of the 2018 FCAD Dean's Teaching Award.
He worked as the Program Director for the Sport Media program from 2016-2021 before going on sabbatical for the 2021-2022 school year.
Joe recently completed his PhD at the University of Toronto in OISE's Adult Education and Community Development department with a focus around Workplace Learning and Social Change.