Dimitris Liokaftos
DOPING RESEARCHER
Liverpool John Moores University, UK
doping, human enhancement drugs, bodybuilding, prevention
Dimitris Liokaftos is a Marie Curie Fellow investigating drug-free (‘natural’) bodybuilding culture at the Department of Public Health, Aarhus University, and Public Health Institute, Liverpool John Moores University. Working across the sociology of the body, health, sport and gender, he approaches pro-enhancement and anti-enhancement cultures in their dialectical relationship as co-constitutive of the wider phenomenon of human enhancement. In his book A Genealogy of Male Bodybuilding: from classical to freaky (Routledge Research in Sport, Culture and Society, 2017), the extreme, ‘freaky’ built body and its history can be read as a case study in the socio-cultural dynamics of human enhancement drugs. Dimitris has co-authored with Ask Vest Christiansen and Anders Schmidt Vinther an “Outline of a typology of men’s use of anabolic androgenic steroids in fitness and strength-training environments” (Drugs: Education, Prevention and Policy Journal, 2016). He also co-organised with Jim McVeigh the Anabolic Steroids: Evidence and Engagement international conference (Public Health Institute, Liverpool John Moores University, 2016) with the participation of researchers, health workers, users and policy makers. In the past Dimitris has worked as an Associate Lecturer at the Department of Sociology, Goldsmiths, University of London, where he also completed his doctoral research on the historical development of male bodybuilding culture.