ABANDONING her childhood love — cosmetology — was initially painful for the rural-bred University of the West Indies, Mona, lecturer of philosophy, Dr Sandra McCalla, who described her transition to physical education, and later to philosophy, as an act of fate.

“I first fell in love with cosmetology and it was while teaching at a cosmetology institute that my love for teaching started and I decided to apply to Church Teachers’ College, where I earned a Diploma in Physical Education and Social Studies — an area I was no stranger to having been active in the line of sports at my alma mater, Vere Technical High,” McCalla said.

She soon fell in love with philosophy, for which she received distinctions at both the undergraduate and master’s levels, blazing such a trail that the university offered her a position in the department of philosophy. At that point, McCalla made a commitment to herself to pursue her PhD in Philosophy.

Fast-forward to 2016. The 42-year-old was one of two UWI graduates who were Wednesday recognised at an evening of excellence hosted by the Mona Office of Graduate Studies and Research for producing the most outstanding thesis of the entire PhD cohort for 2015. The other awardee, Dr Dale Rankine, whose area is physics, will be featured in next week’s issue of Career & Education.

“I am truly honoured as this award means recognition of my hard work. It also is an encouragement for continued growth and development professionally, as it will propel me to push this research to new limits which can lead to overall national, regional and international development,” McCalla told the Jamaica Observer.

The dissertation is entitled

Performance — Enhancement Drugs in Sports: An inquiry into the freedom and responsibility of athletes. It focuses on an issue of ethics — the rationality of choice and fairness. McCalla didn’t merely stitch together the narrative of Jamaica’s sporting interests, but conducted research and included the perspective of the global sporting arena as well.

But McCalla admits that the subject of her award-winning thesis was not her first choice. She told Career & Education that, having scoured every nook and cranny for a PhD supervisor willing to oversee her original topic — Marijuana from an ethical and philosophical framework — and turning up empty-handed, she then sought advice on her next course of action.

“I was disappointed when I couldn’t source a supervisor for my thesis. But my master’s thesis supervisor suggested that I coin a topic around sports and philosophy since I have a background in sports as a trained physical education teacher. I also knew that with Jamaica producing more professional athletes than one could ever imagine, especially for its size, our country has always been under the radar when it comes to whether or not the successes in track and field can be attributed to doping,” McCalla said.

Dr McCalla readily says that although her commitment to her five-year journey spanning 2010 to 2015 — as a part-time candidate never waned, getting there wasn’t easy.

“Producing a quality thesis was difficult as the challenges were many; from generating solid arguments around fair play, freedom, responsibility, and doping, especially since athletes are autonomous human beings, and with the World Anti-doping Agency’s strict liability rule, it would seem that innocent athletes are presumed guilty until proven otherwise. This and other anti-doping rules can be seen as freedom limitations or even restrictions. My way of dealing with this challenge was to formulate a new idea around the concept of self-duty,” Dr McCalla explained.

But the intricacies of the sporting arena and the challenges associated with generating primary data were not McCalla’s only obstacles. There were personal ones too.

“I am a spiritual person, but I had to find renewed spiritual strength during the thesis writing process. I am from a strong religious background and there were times when I received comments from my chief supervisor and felt like I had nothing left to give. During those times, I often called my brother-in-law via

Skype to pray with me. He often connected my mom and other family members who would reassure me that God is always at the wheel,” McCalla shared.

With her thesis now a wrap, the philosophy scientist pledges to work ardently to ensure that her work doesn’t just sit on a shelf. She has already pencilled out how she intends to lobby for tenets of her presentation to be far-reaching and impacting.

“Persons are not yet aware of this study on a wide scale, so my intention is to have aspects of it introduced more through journal publications, conference talks and so on. I also intend to approach some relevant organisations that could find it beneficial. I also intend to develop a book from my thesis as well as conduct several other research. I am also weighing my mind on embarking on post-doctoral studies, but if I decide to pursue same, I first need a very long break,” McCalla said.

She also envisions that her research will have a global reach, aiding in redefining the ethics in sports — not just for the athletes but for all stakeholders involved, including doctors, coaches, trainers and policy makers — and recalling key stakeholders to reflect on ways to enhance development sports.

According to the programme brochure, the scholars’ awards ceremony, which started in 2009 in a breakfast format, is “in keeping with the UWI’s tradition of promoting excellence in research and showcases a rich community of scholars to the wider UWI community and the public at large”. The theme this year was: ‘The Distinctive Graduate: Celebrating Excellence.’