Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), Bowling Green State University, 2023, American Culture Studies

Recent research has examined how and why athletes engage in social justice activism, as well as the reactions and impact of such. Framed by feminist cultural studies and informed by Black feminist thought and intersectionality (King, 2018; Collins, 2009; Crenshaw, 1993), I explored the experiences of Black women athletes engaging in social justice activism. A feminist methodological approach (Ramazanoglu & Holland, 2002) guided this inquiry to understand how Black women athletes define social justice activism, their experiences with social justice activism, and their motivations. These Black women athletes shared powerful stories about their activism and the challenges they faced. Twelve Black women athletes participated in semi-structured interviews. These athletes represented six sports at the professional and colligate level. Using open and axial coding (Corbin & Strauss, 2008) the higher order themes include activism and intersectional identities, everyday activism, challenges, and cultivating a better future. Activism engagement is deeply personal for these Black women athletes given their experiences of adversity and their prescribed status as outsiders within. Because of this status, their activism engagement is largely on a day-to-day basis whereby they recognize the power of speaking up and building social connections. They also use social media as a primary form of everyday activism. A lack of support at the organizational and individual level was reported as a major barrier to their activism engagement, particularly for athletes attending historically White institutions. The cultural expectation for them as Black women to address social inequities was another challenge. Ultimately, motivations driving athletes' activism include their fierce determination and ethic of care to ensure the next generation of Black athletes and Black peers and family members can live safely and freely. As such, these Black women represent a new wave of athlete activism in whic (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Vikki Krane Ph.D. (Committee Chair); Nancy Spencer Ph.D. (Committee Member); Michael Decker Ph.D. (Other); Angela Nelson Ph.D. (Committee Member); Lisa Hanasono Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: American Studies; Sociology; Sports Management

Doctor of Philosophy, Case Western Reserve University, 2018, Sociology

This dissertation explores how middle-class black women narrate race, class, and gender as shaping the experience of recreational running and the development of a runner identity. Theoretically, I approach this study from both a life course and black feminist perspective. The former emphasizes trajectories over time, the process of moving through life's institutionalized stages, and the significance of contextualizing individuals' lives within particular social settings. The latter is an intersectional perspective that acknowledges the power in centering black women's voices and learning about their experiences in their own words. Both of these theoretical perspectives complement my goal of eliciting storytelling that is illustrative of development and change over the course of my participants' lives. Based on multiple life story interviews with 25 middle-class black women between the ages of 26 and 59, my findings focus on three themes that emerged from their narratives. First, I argue that running can be understood as a cultural routine that is engaged in as a means for successfully operating in middle-class, dominant institutions. Running is a middle-class leisure sport and cultural practice for which participation is a marker of status, a means for connecting with others of similar status, and a vehicle for promoting intergenerational social mobility. Second, I identify several mechanisms for enabling or hindering the ability to have a salient, “thick” runner identity in order to better understand how health lifestyles such as running can be better routinized by members of racial minority groups with suboptimal health outcomes. Third, I argue that Black Girls Run!—a fast-growing recreational running group for black women in the United States—facilitates efforts in racial uplift, provides an outlet for escaping racial tokenism, and gives middle-class black women a unique sense of like-minded community. This study makes contributions to our understandings o (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Mary Patrice Erdmans (Committee Chair); Dale Dannefer (Committee Member); Cassi Pittman Claytor (Committee Member); LaShanda Korley (Committee Member) Subjects: African Americans; Gender; Health; Recreation; Social Research; Sociology