Mary Jo Kane, Ph.D., professor in the School of Kinesiology and director emerita of the Tucker Center for Research on Girls & Women in Sport, is quoted in a New York Times article, “‘We Have to Be Better’: Megan Rapinoe and the Year of Victory and Advocacy.” Kane contextualizes the tactics used by women athletes in their efforts to gain pay equity.
On December 16, 2019, Tucker Center director and senior lecturer in the School of Kinesiology, Nicole M. LaVoi, PhD, will give a talk, “Letting the Data Tell the Story on Women Coaches,” in the first-ever BreakThrough Digital Leadership Summit for women in sports. Open to anyone at any level, the free, online-only Summit is designed to support, develop and celebrate women in sports by bringing together online the top women in the industry.
With St. Cloud State University and U of M Crookston recently announcing elimination of football and other sports, WCCO interviewed Mary Jo Kane, Ph.D., professor in the School of Kinesiology and director emerita of the Tucker Center for Research on Girls & Women in Sport, for an online article “Expert: Don’t blame Title IX for loss of Minnesota football programs.” Dr. Kane addresses misconceptions regarding Title IX’s role in the cancellations of the programs.
In this episode [S1E4] of “Tucker Center Talks,” Dr. Nicole M. LaVoi, Tucker Center director and School of Kinesiology senior lecturer, has a conversation with Dr. Julie McCleery and Emily Stets about revelations pertaining to elite runner Mary Cain. Julie is Director of Research-Practice Partnerships & Lecturer, University of Washington Center for Leadership in Athletics, and Emily is a Program Associate, Aspen Institute Sports & Society Program and a fellow Minnesotan. Drawing on their collective knowledge of coaching science, human development and passion for girls and women in sport, we discuss how and why this happened and what can be done to prevent to from happening again. Spoiler alert…change the system and value females.
In this episode [S1E3] of “Tucker Center Talks,” Dr. Nicole M. LaVoi talks with Dr. Austin Stair Calhoun, a Tucker Center Affiliated Scholar and currently the Chief of Staff at the University of Minnesota’s Office of Medical Education. We talk about our research together pertaining to family narratives in online coaching biographies of collegiate coaches and her dissertation on the gatekeepers who decide what and how online coaching biographies are written. We discuss new data 10 years later, why erasing same-sex family narratives matters in perpetuating homophobia and heterosexism, and implications for athletic administrators. View the poster and read the full manuscript.
Calhoun, A. S., LaVoi, N. M., & Johnson, A. (2011). Framing with family: Examining online coaching biographies for heteronormative and heterosexist narratives. International Journal of Sport Communication, 4(3), 300-316.
Calhoun, A. S., LaVoi, N. M., & Kane, M. J. (2009). Examining online intercollegiate head coaches’ biographies: Reproducing or challenging heteronormativity and heterosexism? Poster session presented at the Sport, Sexuality, and Culture Conference, Ithaca, NY.
Tucker Center director Nicole M. LaVoi, PhD, senior lecturer in the School of Kinesiology, is quoted in the WomensRunning.com article, “Why Women Will Save Running.” LaVoi comments on systems of coaching that are detrimental and the need to replace them with coaching culture that supports female athletes.
In a recent Washington Post article, “A sport of their own: A high school wrestler from Kansas spent four years fighting to give girls the opportunity to compete in an official state sport,” Mary Jo Kane, Ph.D., director emerita of the Tucker Center and professor in the School of Kinesiology, comments on Title IX, the landmark 1972 legislation designed, in part, to create gender equity in sports. The article covers Mya Kretzer who as a high schooler advocated to the Kansas Board of Education to make girls’ wrestling an official state sport.
Mary Jo Kane, Ph.D., director emerita of the Tucker Center and professor in the School of Kinesiology, is an invited panelist at the North American Society for the Sociology of Sport (NASSS) annual conference in Virginia Beach, VA, November 7-10. The panel features directors of research centers in higher education and examines the challenges and opportunities associated with such centers.
Dr. Kane tells listeners the origin story of the Tucker Center and discusses her seminal piece of research known as the “sport as continuum” paper. If you want to brush up, read the original 1995 paper—and you should because it is a good one!—or the 2017 reflection piece she wrote on the impact of her sport continuum theory. Near the end of the pod, we discuss how the sport continuum theory may be applied to the current topic of, and debate surrounding, inclusion of transgender athletes. You can read TC affiliated scholar Dr. Austin Stair Calhoun’s 2017 OpEd on her perspective on the complexities on applying and revisiting the sport as continuum theory.
The New Zealand publication Newsroom quotes Tucker Center director Nicole M. LaVoi, PhD, senior lecturer in the School of Kinesiology, in an online article “Women’s funding is not reverse discrimination.” The article quotes LaVoi extensively from her Tucker Center Talks podcast.
Research on media coverage from the Tucker Center is cited in an article from Crosscut.com, “From media to money, WNBA players see disparities ‘in every aspect of the game.’ Just ask the Storm.” The article interviews various players and leaders from the WNBA’s Seattle Storm and discusses the issue of pay inequity in particular.
School of Kinesiology Master’s graduate Mikinzee Salo is interviewed on women and sport in a Brainerd Dispatch story, “Athletics: Talking females in sports with Salo.” Salo, a former Brainerd High School graduate and currently Gustavus Adlophus men’s tennis assistant coach and assistant director for the Gustie’s Tennis at Tennis and Life Camps, took her Master’s degree in Kinesiology with an emphasis in sport sociology this year. The interview includes quotes on the Tucker Center and her experience as a graduate student at the U of M. Salo’s adviser was Nicole M. LaVoi, PhD.
Tucker Center director Nicole M. LaVoi, PhD, senior lecturer in the School of Kinesiology, is the invited keynote speaker for a Good Leadership Breakfast Series event on October 18, 7:15 AM – 9:00 AM at the Golden Valley Country Club in Golden Valley, MN.
In this first episode of Tucker Center Talks, Nicole M. LaVoi, Ph.D., director of the Tucker Center for Research on Girls & Women in Sport introduces the work of the Tucker Center, in terms of who we are and what we do in our research, outreach, and educational programming.
Sport NZ, Women in Sport Aotearoa, and the Shift Foundation have invited Tucker Center director Nicole M. LaVoi, PhD, senior lecturer in the School of Kinesiology, to keynote their first annual Sport NZ Women + Girls Summit 2019 on October 7. The one-day event is for those working or contributing to play, active recreation, and sport for New Zealand women and girls. The programme was designed with a view to raising awareness and interest in gender equity issues among government ministers, sporting leaders, media, and also athletes and sporting participants, not only in New Zealand, but also internationally through the many networks to which they organizations belong.
The Minnesota Daily has written an article on Mary Jo Kane, Ph.D., director emerita of the Tucker Center and professor in the School of Kinesiology. The article, “Mary Jo Kane accounts retirement, following decades of research on girls and women in sports,” quotes Kane and her colleagues about her time at the University of Minnesota and highlights some of the important work she has accomplished during her career in academia.
The Tucker Center’s new documentary with Twin Cities PBS, “GAME ON: Women Can Coach” will be screened at the Sports Diversity and Inclusion Symposium on October 1st and 2nd.
The Tucker Center for Research on Girls & Women in Sport is a recipient of a 2019 Women’s Center Gender Equity Grant in support of the Center’s annual Women Coaches Symposium, led by TC director, Nicole M. LaVoi, PhD. Women’s Center Gender Equity Grants support initiatives by campus groups that advance gender equity.
A reception to honor all gender equity grant recipients will be held October 17 during the Women’s Center’s annual Celebrating Changemakers program. All are welcome; RSVP encouraged at z.umn.edu/2019celebrate.
Tucker Center director Nicole M. LaVoi, PhD, senior lecturer in the School of Kinesiology, along with colleagues Jennifer E. McGarry (University of Connecticut) and Leslee A. Fisher (University of Tennesee), have published an article in the Women in Sport and Physical Activity Journal: “Final Thoughts on Women in Sport Coaching: Fighting the War.” The article, part of a themed WSPAJ issue on women in sport coaching, argues that “data is warranted and must be systematically organized and leveraged to maximize change efforts.”
Mary Jo Kane, Ph.D., professor in the CEHD School of Kinesiology and director emerita in the Tucker Center for Research on Girls & Women in Sport, is an invited speaker for a Humphrey School of Public Affairs-sponsored Center for the Study of Politics and Governance event, “The Victorious US Women’s Soccer Team and the Fading Gender Divide.” Kane, in conversation with Jamie L. Feldman, Ph.D., associate professor in the Department of Family Medicine and Community Health and faculty in the Program in Human Sexuality, will discuss the evolving state of women’s sport. Introductions will be by Dr. Larry Jacobs, the Walter F. and Joan Mondale Chair for Political Studies and professor in the Department of Political Science. The event is Tuesday, September 24, from 12:00 – 1:15 P.M. in the Humphrey Center’s Humphrey Forum. Registration requested.
