Home University: University of Guelph
Email: ahughe04@uoguelph.ca
Education: BA & MA, History, Guelph
Research Fields: North American History, Sport, Body, Drugs
Supervisor: Catherine Carstairs
Aidan is a PhD candidate (History) and TUGSA co-president for the University of Guelph. Aidan is interested in the histories of performance-enhancing drugs, body cultures, and masculinities. His MA thesis examined user-generated steroid handbooks and bodybuilding subculture in Southern California during the 1980s. Aidan’s doctoral project has moved beyond bodybuilding and towards the world of high-performance sport. Focusing on the Dubin Inquiry, he investigates the intersections between performance-enhancing drugs, sporting subcultures, consumer culture, and masculinity to understand how athletes perceived and justified their own drug use at a time when the anti-doping movement was gaining considerable moral currency. Aidan is currently working on a related project on the ways in which the World Wrestling Federation’s visual economy of the late 1980s and early 1990s hinged on the physical capital of hard-bodied (steroid-using) professional wrestlers.