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Faculty and StaffFaculty and Staff Profiles

Susan Birrell
Professor
Cultural Studies

University of Iowa
Dept. of Health and Sport Studies
Dept. of Women’s Studies
Dept. of American Studies
E115 Field House
Iowa City, IA 52242-1111
319-335-9337 voice / 319-335-6669 fax / susan-birrell@uiowa.edu


Interests

  • Cultural studies of sport
  • Representations, ideology and sport
  • Mt. Everest as a cultural site
  • Cultural history of the American vacation

Education

Ph.D. University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA, 1978
Human Movement, Sociology of Sport Concentration

M.S. University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA, 1976
Physical Education, Sport Studies Concentration

B.A. St. Lawrence University, Canton, New York, 1968
English

Honors and Awards

  • Chosen to present the 2008 Allan Ingham Keynote Address, North American Society of Sport Sociology.
  • Choosen to presnt the 2007 Reet Howell address, Australian Society for Sport History.
  • Recipient of the 2006 Seward Staley Award from the North American Society for Sport History.
  • Michael J. Brody Service Award, University of Iowa, 2002
  • Reading Sport (2000), co-edited with Mary McDonald, named an outstanding academic title by Choice, American Library Association.
  • Grayson Kirk Distinguished Lecture in International Studies, Miami University, "Claiming Everest: Nationalism and Ideology at 29,000 Feet," November 1999.
  • St. Lawrence University Athletic Hall of Fame, 1993
  • Outstanding Young Woman of America, 1982

Selected Publications

Birrell, Susan (2008). “Reading the Olympic Games: Critical incidents, critical inquiry,” Illuminating the Legacy of the Seoul Olympic Games, Proceedings of the 2008 International Congress, Seoul, Korea: KAHPERD, pp. 84-95.

Birrell, Susan (2008). “Suspended on Everest: Critical narrative analysis and the study of the past,” New Practical and Methodological Approaches toward the Development of Sociology of Sport, Proceedings of the 2008 International Sociology of Sport Seminar, Seoul, Korea: Korean Society for the Sociology of Sport, pp. 21-46.

Birrell, Susan. (2007). Approaching Mt Everest: On intertextuality and the past as narrative. Journal of Sport History, 34:1:401-422.

Birrell, Susan. (2006). Sport and Sport Studies. In Chris Rojek, Susan Shaw, and Tony Veal, eds. The Handbook of Leisure Studies, London: Palgrave MacMillan, pp. 335-353.

Birrell, Susan and Donnelly, Peter. (2004). Reclaiming Goffman: Erving Goffman's influence on the sociology of sport, In Richard Giulianotti, ed. Sport and Modern Social Theorists, London: Palgrave MacMillan, pp. 49-64.

Birrell, Susan and McDonald, Mary, eds. (2000). Reading Sport: Critical Essays on Power and Representation. Boston: Northeastern University Press.

Birrell, Susan. (2000). Feminist theories for sport. In Jay Coakley and Eric Dunning, eds. Handbook of Sport and Society. London: Sage.

McDonald, Mary and Birrell, Susan. (1999). Reading sport critically: A methodology for interrogating sport. Journal of Sociology of Sport, 16:4. (1999).

Birrell, Susan and Cole, C.L. (Eds.). (1994). Women, Sport, and Culture. Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics Press.

Birrell, Susan and Nancy Theberge. (1994). The sociological study of women in sport; Structural constraints facing women in sport; Ideological constraints of women in sport; Feminist resistance and transformation in sport. Four chapters in Women and Sport: Interdisciplinary Perspectives, ed. Margaret Costa and Sharon Guthre. Campaign, IL: Human Kinetics Press, pp. 323-376.

Birrell, Susan. (1990). Racial relations, critical autobiography and sport: New dimensions for feminist cultural studies, Chapter 15. In Sport, Men and the Gender Order: Critical Feminist Perspectives. Michael Messner and Donald Sabo, eds. Campaign, IL: Human Kinetics Press, pp. 185-199.

Birrell, Susan. (1989). Racial relations theories and sport: Suggestions for a more critical analysis. Sociology of Sport Journal 6:212-227.

Birrell, Susan. (1988). Discourses on the gender/sport relationship: From 'women in sport' to 'gender relations,' Exercise and Sport Sceince Review, 16:459-502.

Hart, Marie and Susan Birrell, eds. (1981). Sport in the Sociocultural Process, third edition. Dubuque, IA: Wm. C. Brown.

Courses Taught at the University of Iowa

  • Inequality in Sport
  • Sport and the Media
  • Women, Sport and Culture
  • Critical Perspectives
  • Sport in US Culture
  • Cultural Analyses of Sport
  • Seminar in Cultural Studies of Sport
  • The American Vacation
  • Honors Readings
  • Honors Problems