Aoife is Head of Department of Sport and Health Sciences in Technological University of the Shannon (TUS) Athlone, lead of the SHE Research Centre and co-founder of míde (an all islandconsortium for research on women in sport). Aoife supervises PhD projects on sex and gender influences on sport and physical activity, many in the context of Gaelic games. Aoife is also a member of Sport Ireland’s Women in Sport Committee.
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Professor Elizabeth Pike has worked at the Universityof Hertfordshire since August 2017, where she is Professor and Head of the Institute of Sport, having previously worked at St Mary's University and the University of Chichester.
Elizabeth’s work takes as its focus issues of equality, diversity and inclusion in and through sport. She has published widely on these topics and has been an invited speaker, researcherand advisor at many Universities and conferences across the globe, including numerous media appearances. Her expertise has been recognised in her election to the Presidency of the International Sociology ofSport Association (ISSA), serving as a voluntary Executive Board member from 2008-2019. During hertenure as President, she established the ISSA as a Charitable Incorporated Organisation. In 2019 she was awarded Fellowship of the RSA (Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce), in 2021 she was awarded the inaugural Life and Medical Sciences Athena Swan Award for her work to promote equality, in2023 she was identified by the Women in Sport and Exercise Academic Network (WiSEAN) as one of the top 10 individuals who have made a significant contribution to women's/girls’ sport and exercise and whoare inspirational in their field, and she is the 2024 Global Winner of the International Olympic Committee’s Gender Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Award. She serves on theeditorial board of the journals International Review for the Sociology of Sport, Fisica and Ciencias, Olimpianos, and Frontiers.
Elizabeth has particular expertise in the area of gender and sport. She is the co-founder of the AnitaWhite Foundation (AWF) and served as Chair of the AWF from 2011-2017. During this time, she established partnerships with the Tanzanian National Sports Council to support women leaders in Tanzania, and with Females Achieving Brilliance to develop the Women’s Sports Leadership Academy which was shortlisted for the 2019 Beyond Sport Award for Gender Equality. Since 2019, she has chaired the Management Group for the Women in Sport HighPerformance pathway (WISH), which is supported by Olympic Solidarity. Elizabeth has published widely ontopics related to women and sport, is currently editing the Routledge book series on Women, Sport and PhysicalActivity, and was part of theresearch team that was commissioned to produce the 2014 and 2018 Progress Reports for the International Working Group on Women and Sport (IWG). She is the ResearchLead for the IWG UK Secretariat 2022-2026, leading the Anita White Fund and serving as a member of the European Non-Government Sport Organisation's EQUIP (Equalityin Practice) Expert Advisory Panel in a voluntary capacity.
Elizabeth is also a leading academic in the sociological understanding of physical activity andageing. She is Head of the Sport and Social InclusionResearch Group (SSIRG) which includes an international research team, policy-makers and practitioners, andformer Associate Editor of the Journal of Aging and Physical Activity. She has been awarded ESRC grants to deliver research projects investigating physical activity for older women in the UK and Japan, and physical activityfor people living with dementia. She was an invited member of the international research team that produced a Consensus Statement on Physical Activity and Ageing, and a member of the Alzheimer's Society Physical Activity Expert Advisory Group.
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Dr Malika Felton is a Senior Lecturer in Health and ExercisePhysiology within the Centre for Midwifery and Women’s Health at Bournemouth University. She completed herpost-doc at University of Exeter as part of the Moving Through Motherhood research group, running co-design workshops on supporting physical activity during and after pregnancy. This research won her the Early Career Researcher Award at the WiSEAN conference in 2023, and in 2024 she won the Best Oral Presentation for the SwimHer Research Network work on recommendations for cold water swimming and pregnancy. Malika also supports the Maternal and Infant Health Equity Research Centre (MIHERC) as partof the NIHR Challenge: Maternity Disparities Consortium.
Melissa Lodge, MS
Melissa Lodge is an Interdisciplinary Health Sciences PhD candidate and graduate assistant at the University of Rhode Island. Her research focusses on female athlete physiology, particularly under conditions of low energy availability (LEA), such as Relative Energy Deficiency in Sport (REDs) and its associated impact on health and performance across thelifespan. She has presented her work at several regional, national and international conferences featuring work in female athletes on LEA outcomes. Melissa is interested in exploring intervention-based models, such as education, to improve outcomes for female athletes and girls in sports in the future. She is passionate about translating research to the athletic population and also runs the social media account @FED_collaborative on female athlete physiology, LEA/REDs, and eating disorders/disordered eating.
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Stacey Pope is a professor based in the Department of Sport and Exercise Sciences at Durham University, UK. Professor Pope leads research in the area of women, football andinequalities. She is a leading guru in the area of women football fans. She has developed a new programme of work examining men’s responses to the growing visibility of women in sport and issues of sexism and misogyny. She also leads research on media coverage of the FIFA Women’s World Cup and fans of the England women’s team. Her research has led to her contributing as an invitedexpert for various UK Government inquiries for Culture, Media and Sport and Women and Equalities select committees. She is committed to the public engagement of her work, with her research regularly featuring in the nationaland international media.
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Dr Emma Cowley is a postdoctoral researcher at the SHE Research Centre in TUS Athlone. She is a Marie Sklodowska-Curie alumna and earned her PhD from Liverpool John Moore’s University; her research focused on increasing adolescent girls' participation in physical activity. Emma leads the Invisible Sportswomen international research group which aims to address the gender data gap in sport and exercise science. Previously, she held a postdoc position at the Cardiometabolic laboratory at UNC Chapel Hill before moving to the UK where she was the lead for the DTA3/COFUND PhD Fellowship Programme.
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Dr Stacey Emmonds is an Associate Professor in SportsPerformance in the Carnegie School of Sport at Leeds Beckett University. Dr Emmonds has extensive experience of working with professional sports teams, governing bodies and policy makers on consultancy and research projects. Shehas published over 50 research articles, book chapters andconference presentations in relation to sports performance and particularly women’s football. Alongside her research role, she works as a physical performance coach with the England women youth football teams as well as being an invited member of the UEFA Fitness for Football advisory board.
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Harry Meadley is an artist, researcher and skateboarder based in Leeds, UK, who initiates projects that, through inclusion, participation and co-production, seek to reclaim and reappropriate civic space. From municipal art galleries, universities and city centres to remote locations, Meadley’s socially engaged artistic practice aims to question not just the structures of power within society but of artistic production itself. Recent projects include the Civic kateboarding festival for marginalised gender skateboarders as part of Leeds 2023 Year of Culture and Free-for-All at Touchstones, Rochdale, which saw the entire gallery given over to the people of Rochdale to use however they wanted.
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Dr Margie Davenport leads the Program for Pregnancy and Postpartum Health, and has published more than 175 manuscripts related to physical activity and sport during preconception, pregnancy and the postpartum period. Over the last decade she has worked with a number of National/International organisations including FIFA, the World Health Organization, International Olympic Committee, Sport Canada, the Canadian Society for Exercise Physiology and the American College of Sports Medicine, to support physical activity during and following pregnancy.
Dr Davenport was the Chair of the 2019 Canadian Guidelinefor Physical Activity throughout Pregnancy, and the 2025 Canadian Guideline for PhysicalActivity, Sedentary Behaviour and Sleep throughout the First Year Postpartum. This work led to the development of the Get Active Questionnaire for Pregnancy, Get ActiveQuestionnaire for Postpartum and the Canadian Society forExercise Physiology/American College of Sports Medicine Pre & Postnatal Exercise Specialization.
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Dr Alex Culvin is the Director of Global Policy and StrategicRelations, Women’s Football at FIFPro, theglobal player union. Alex is also an academic at Leeds Beckett University at the Centre for Social Justice in Sport andSociety. She is a former professionalfootballer, who played in both Englandand Europe.
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Dr Ali Bowes is a Senior Lecturer in the Sociology of Sport at Nottingham Trent University. Ali primarily researches the sociocultural dimensions in elite women’s sport and is the co-editor of two books: The Professionalisation of Women’s Sport and Women’s Football in a Global, Professional Era. Ali has published 40 peer-reviewed papers and book chapters, focusing mainly on qualitative methodologies from feminist perspectives, spanning topics including gender inequality in elite sport, equal pay debates, maternity rights, national identity, women’s sport fandom and media coverage. Ali has also discussed these issues extensively in popular spaces, featuring in a range of national and international media and culminating in being involved in the Netflix Documentary, “Game On: The Unstoppable Rise of Women’s Sport”.
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Kerry McGawley is a professor in sports science at the Swedish Winter Sports Research Centre, part of Mid Sweden University. She is also the senior manager of the female athlete programme at Orreco (Fitrwoman). Kerry is passionate about supporting and developing women in sport and much of her research is conducted in collaboration with national and international sports organisations. In line with her research focus, Kerry leads a M.Sc. programme in Sports Performance and Athlete Health and she tutors on several high-performance sports coaching programmes. Kerry has published more than 50 peer-reviewed scientific articles and has written several book chapters. Outside of work, Kerry is a keen competitive triathlete and has won several World, European and National age-group championship titles.
Kerry can be found on X (Twitter) and Instagram under my name, @Kerry McGawley
https://www.instagram.com/kerrymcgawley/
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Christy Greenleaf, Ph.D. is a Professor of Kinesiology at Zilber College of Public Health, University of Wisconsin Milwaukee.
Dr Greenleaf’s research focuses on psychosocial aspects of weight, physical activity and body image. In particular, she is curious about the lived experiences of individuals with larger bodies in health and fitness contexts and how weight bias, or negative attitudes and stereotypes towards individuals who appear to be overweight, manifests itself within physical activity settings. Dr Greenleaf's research seeks to inform practices for creating and supporting size-inclusive physical activity environments. To date, she has focused on media representations of fat exercisers in a televised weight-loss competition, women’s experiences related to plus-size exercise clothing and exercise motivation, as well as experiences of embodiment during physical activity. Most recently, she has begun exploring information on weight-inclusive and weight-neutral approaches to fitness and health directed toward fitness professionals. Dr Greenleaf has published 60 peer-reviewed articles, 15 book chapters and has made over 125 national/international presentations.
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Dr Marlize De Vivo is a qualified Biokineticist, Sports Rehabilitator and Sport & Exercise Scientist with extensive experience spanning health and sports settings. During her PhD, she focused on understanding and predicting the physical activity behaviour of pregnant women, leading to the development of This Mum Moves, a national educational initiative to upskill workforces, supported by National Lottery and Sport England funding.
Since then, she has co-directed the Perinatal Physical Activity Research Group (PPARG) at Canterbury Christ Church University, generating insights into women’s engagement in sport and physical activity during their childbearing years. She has also been instrumental in the development of national physical activity guidelines, serving on the Expert Working Group for the Chief Medical Officers' guidelines.
As an academic, Marlize is currently based at the Advanced Wellbeing Research Centre at Sheffield Hallam University, where she is the National Centre for Sport & Exercise Medicine (NCSEM) Programme Manager. Outside of this, her “passion project” is The Active Pregnancy Foundation – a registered charity supporting women to stay active throughout pregnancy and beyond, by providing expertise and advice, changing culture, and challenging policy.
We will hear Marlize talk about all her activities, and how This Mum Moves came from connections she’d made with individuals trying to make a difference for pregnant women. One of these connections even came from a social media post she did. I really enjoyed chatting with Marlize and was inspired by the advice she gave at the end on how to make an impact in whatever you’re doing.
Themes covered in this episode
In this podcast, I chat with Dr Jenny Burbage, who is a senior lecturer in biomechanics and part of the Research Group in Breast Health within the School of Sport, Health and Exercise Science at the University of Portsmouth. Her research focuses on biomechanics, health and education related to the female breast, and she is one of the few world experts in this area. She is passionate about ensuring functional breast support and comfort for workers, especially when additional equipment needs to be worn (e.g., body armour), and increasing breast health education for all.
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Emma completed her BSc (Hons) Physiotherapy from Trinity College Dublin. She completed rotations in Geriatrics, General Medicine, Neurology and Sports Medicine at Changi General Hospital in Singapore before travelling to the US, where she was the physiotherapist for the 3,000-mile bicycle race ‘Race Across America’ in 2015 and 2016. She then moved to Switzerland where she worked in musculoskeletal private practice with skiers in Verbier.
Emma moved to New Zealand in 2017, and currently works as a Health Partner with ACC and as a Musculoskeletal Medicine Lecturer at The University of Otago, Wellington. She is also completing a PhD on the impact of a female-specific anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction rehabilitation programme. Emma is strongly interested in including female participants in her research and investigating female-specific prevention, causation and management of common musculoskeletal conditions.
When Emma is not working, she is usually running, biking or tramping in New Zealand’s backcountry.
Twitter: @femaleathletept
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About Dr Hanya Pielichaty and Critical Pedagogies in Sport
When I retired from playing football in 2015, I had clocked up three decades of unwavering dedication to the sport. My experience of, and within, football shaped my childhood and adulthood in many personal and professional ways. My memories of football include wearing oversized shirts designed for the male form, playing on undulating pitches, paying my subs and of overwhelming joy. The joy football brings cannot be under-estimated; it stirs the grey matter in the brain, facilitates the smell of Sunday afternoon shin pads and most importantly brings you a sense of community that you didn’t know could exist. The backdrop to this joy was a relentless need to prove myself on and off the pitch, and not always related to performance, but to be able to sustain your presence in a male dominated and guarded space. This is discussed at length in my book where I interweave my own memories of playing into a broader study alongside other players’ experiences.
My lived experiences of sport have shaped my professional and epistemological views of the world. My teaching covers modules relating to sport and society, and I also lead institutional equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) projects. A current study I am conducting explores the sense of belonging of students on male, white dominated degree programmes, such as Sports Business Management. I have found that my male dominated teaching spaces are reflective of my previous experiences in football. My feminist standpoint and approach to inclusive education must and does influence my teaching and learning practices. It is these experiences which led me to the creation of the Critical Pedagogies in Sport (CPIS) international network. The overall purpose of CPIS is to facilitate, support and share valuable practice relating to teaching and learning. It is hoped this will be achieved by interrogating what, why and how we teach in relation to inclusive education in sport. CPIS will be able to re/view, challenge, and address inequities in relation to teaching and learning which impact student experience. The aims of CPIS are as follows:
Earlier this year (2023), I invited academics from across four institutions to join me in leading CPIS, they are: Professor Philippa Velija and Dr Catherine Phipps (both from Solent University), Dr Nik Dickerson (Loughborough University), Professor Chris Headleand (Staffordshire University) and Professor Belinda Colston (Eleanor Glanville Institute). Our own research which inspired us to develop this network includes work on the impact of gender regimes on students’ experiences and in relation to gender justice. The network is in its infancy but has already received overwhelmingly positive responses since its launch at the end of October 2022. The network currently has over 35 members, spanning 14 countries and is growing all the time.
Academics who currently (or aspire to) teach across degrees such as sports business management, esports, sports and coaching, physical education, sport and exercise science, sports psychology, and sports technology, amongst others, will find this network valuable. We hope to put on collaborative events soon and undertake various writing projects. If you would like to learn more about CPIS and/or join the network, please do get in touch with me via email hpielichaty@lincoln.ac.uk and follow on Twitter @ CritPedSports.
Professor Győző Molnár joined the University of Worcester in September 2008. Győző is a critical sociologist with a research focus on identity politics, political populism, gender and empowering marginalised populations. His current research has focused on the migratory and gendered aspects of Fiji rugby, challenging dominant perspectives in Adapted Physical Activity research and unfolding connections between sport and populist politics in Hungary. He is co-editor of The Politics of The Olympics (2010, Routledge), Ethnographies in Sport and Exercise Research (2016, Routledge), Women, Sport and Exercise in the Asia-Pacific Region: Domination-Resistance-Accommodation (2018, Routledge), The Routledge Handbook of Gender Politics in Sport and Physical Activity (2022, Routledge), Encyclopaedia of Politics of Sport(Forthcoming, Elgar) and co-writer of Sport, Exercise and Social Theory: An Introduction (2012, Routledge).
In this episode, we talk about the Handbook of Gender Politics in Sport and Physical Activity, that he edited with Rachael Bullingham, his insights from his research with the Fijian women rugby players, his international collaborations and his future research directions.
Themes/topics
· The Handbook of Gender Politics in Sport and Physical Activity: Overview of content
· Contributing chapters and how connections between politics, gender and sport are made more explicit. How to untangle politics from socio-cultural, environmental influences
· Research with the Fijian women rugby players (finding motivation in a hostile environment): key findings
· The importance of and advice on expressing positionality and negotiating power relationships in ethnographical research
· Collaborating with others: Tips, advice, approach
· Research needs in the area
· Future projects
Gráinne Donnelly is an Advanced Physiotherapy Practitioner and clinical researcher from N. Ireland in the UK. She is incoming co-editor for the journal of Pelvic, Obstetric and Gynaecological Physiotherapy and will sit on the Board of Trustees for the Pelvic Obstetric and Gynaecological Physiotherapy Association. She is on the specialist advisory board for the Active Pregnancy Foundation and is an associate member of the Perinatal Physical Activity Research Group at Canterbury Christ Church University. After 13 years in the NHS, she left the position as Team Lead for the pelvic health service to pursue private practice and research. She has published several peer-reviewed publications on return to physical activity postpartum and on diastasis rectus abdominis. She educates physiotherapists internationally and is currently pursuing a PhD. She also co-hosts a podcast called At Your Cervix, which aims to improve evidence-based information dissemination within the general public.
In this episode, I talk to Gráinne about some of her research papers in this area, her research and infographic on return to running postpartum, and her PhD, looking at the effect of compression garments on the pelvic floor. Gráinne also talks about her other projects, in which she is involved. Main topics we cover include:
Emma Brockwell is a Specialist Pelvic Health Physiotherapist. She treats women of all ages with all women’s health-related conditions. She is passionate about pre and postnatal rehabilitation and exercise. She specialises in supporting women back to exercise, particularly running and netball if they have any pelvic health dysfunction or are postnatal. She has co-authored the first ‘Returning to Running Postnatal Guidelines’ and has spoken about this subject at many medical and exercise conferences. Over the past two years she has co-authored further publications on this subject. Emma has written for many magazines including Women’s Running and Women’s Health magazine and last year her first book called ‘Why did no one tell me? How to protect, heal and nurture your body through motherhood' was published.
Emma founded and leads a Walk and Running club, Oxted Ladies Run Club. She is on the advisory board for The Active Pregnancy Foundation and is an associate member of the Perinatal Physical Activity Research Group. She now works privately in Guildford and Godstone and is the co-presenter of the podcast, At Your Cervix – the podcast. Alongside Grainne Donnelly and Helen McElroy, she co-founded the Athletic Female an evidence-based course aimed at healthcare, fitness and medical professionals who work with female athletes.
You can follow her on Instagram @physiomumuk and find out all the links to the above on www.physiomum.co.uk
In this podcast, I talk with Emma about the key pieces of advice from the ‘Returning to Running Postnatal Guidelines’. We talk about her other work and how she has managed to create an impact. Emma also gives her thoughts on what the gaps in the research are and her future research-related projects.
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