Cynthia Fabrizio Pelak
New Mexico State University, Sociology, Faculty Member
Research Interests:
This essay traces the history of South African women’s participation in competitive soccer from 1970 to the present and analyses power relations, namely race, gender and class, within the sport. Three distinct periods are identified: (1)... more
This essay traces the history of South African women’s participation in competitive soccer from 1970 to the present and analyses power relations, namely race, gender and class, within the sport. Three distinct periods are identified: (1) emergence and development years from 1970 to 1990; (2) growth and transition years from 1991 to 2000; and (3) institutionalization years from 2001 to the present. This socio‐historical analysis is based on fieldwork in South Africa and relies on qualitative interviews, participant observations and archival documentation. Special attention is given to the shifting racial demographics of women footballers, the influence of feminism and democratization in South Africa on increasing the numbers of girls and women in this masculine flagship sport, globalization of ‘women’s soccer’ and the organizational development in the sport at the local and national levels. Contributions of key administrators and leaders as well as players are briefly discussed.
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This research examines the emergence and development of a women's collegiate ice hockey club at a large university in the midwestern United States during the 1990s. The aim of this article is to assess the role that collective action... more
This research examines the emergence and development of a women's collegiate ice hockey club at a large university in the midwestern United States during the 1990s. The aim of this article is to assess the role that collective action plays in contesting sexist structures and practices within a traditionally male-dominated institution. This article draws on collective identity theory, as articulated in the social movement literature, to understand the process by which perceived injustices at an ice rink are translated into collective action on the part of a women's ice hockey club. The findings, based on fieldwork and interviews, demonstrate that the club's collective identity as a legitimate ice hockey organization was an important factor in the women's successful challenge of exclusionary practices at a university ice rink.
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This study contributes to the emerging international literature on women’s soccer by exploring how South African women are negotiating material and ideological constraints to participate in the historically masculine sport of football.... more
This study contributes to the emerging international literature on women’s soccer by exploring how South African women are negotiating material and ideological constraints to participate in the historically masculine sport of football. Special attention is given to situating athletes’ micro-level experiences within macro-level social structures, including the material legacies of colonialism and apartheid. This analysis is based on a multi-methods approach that includes interview, survey, documentary, and observational data collected during 1999 and 2000. Theoretically, this analysis draws upon various frameworks characteristic of feminist sport literatures as well as theoretical insights of Black feminists writing within and beyond Southern Africa. The findings show that a strong ethic of care within the women’s soccer community and strategies of creative resistance in the everyday lives of South African women soccer athletes are central to challenging exclusionary practices in soccer. Implications for theory and future research are discussed.
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Using data from a 2013 Student Diversity Survey, this place-based analysis examines the cultural values, beliefs, and logics of postsecondary students from an Hispanic Land Grant Institution in southern New Mexico. The analysis explores... more
Using data from a 2013 Student Diversity Survey, this place-based analysis examines the cultural values, beliefs, and logics of postsecondary students from an Hispanic Land Grant Institution in southern New Mexico. The analysis explores the diverse social profiles of the students in the sample and how race, gender, and class statuses shape student’s cultural logics related to educational democracy. Relying on the concepts of cultural citizenship and settler colonialism, the author imagines a post-assimilationist education trajectory that celebrates the cultural wealth of working-class, students of color, and women students as they diversify US higher education. The findings show that these postsecondary students embrace cultural logics centering on interdependence and collectivism and reject cultural logics centering on individualism and independence. The author makes a case for expanding neoliberal Diversity, Equity and Inclusion approaches in US higher education to grapple with the foundational violences of Indigenous land dispossession and ongoing settler colonialism that maintains systemic inequities and exclusions in US public education.
Research Interests: Sociology, Gender Studies, Indigenous Studies, Race and Ethnicity, Feminism, and 11 moreDemocracy, Equity and Social Justice in Higher Education, Cultural Diversity, Cultural Citizenship, Equity, Citizenship, Collectivism, Settler colonialism, Cultural Assimilation, Democracy and Citizenship Education, and Land-Grant Universities
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This study examines shifting race relations within one of South Africa’s most popular and fastest growing sports—women’s netball. Drawing on political opportunity and collective identity theories as articulated by social movement... more
This study examines shifting race relations within one of South Africa’s most popular and fastest growing sports—women’s netball. Drawing on political opportunity and collective identity theories as articulated by social movement scholars, this article develops an analytical strategy to elucidate how athletes and sport administrators can serve as agents of social change. This analysis relies on interview, survey, and archival data collected during 1999 and 2000. The findings show that netball athletes and administrators are contributing to nation building in post-apartheid South Africa by constructing new collective identities across historical racial boundaries.
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This article contributes to emerging efforts to decolonize race-based approaches and antiracist pedagogies in sociology. Building on recent scholarship on settler colonialism and decolonization as well as her experiences of being... more
This article contributes to emerging efforts to decolonize race-based approaches and antiracist pedagogies in sociology. Building on recent scholarship on settler colonialism and decolonization as well as her experiences of being unsettled, the author discusses the limitations of her critical sociological toolkit for understanding and teaching about the cultural violence associated with “Indian” sport mascots. By discussing an active-learning writing assignment and students’ work from an online course in sport and society, the author argues for sociologists to go beyond frameworks that conceptualize American Indians as a racial or ethnic group seeking greater inclusion in a multicultural nation and consider ongoing settler colonialism that structures U.S. society. The author contends that adding land back into sociological frameworks will help make visible legitimized racism and the cultural logic of elimination and replacement of Indigenous peoples of Turtle Island. To conclude, th...
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... In this paper, I theorize local-global connections by examining the devel-opment of women's ... Scholars are just begin-ning to examine how discourses around women athletes contribute to ... South African women could more... more
... In this paper, I theorize local-global connections by examining the devel-opment of women's ... Scholars are just begin-ning to examine how discourses around women athletes contribute to ... South African women could more easily dream about travelling and making money by ...
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This article contributes to emerging efforts to decolonize race-based approaches and antiracist pedagogies in sociology. Building on recent scholarship on settler colonialism and decolonization as well as her experiences of being... more
This article contributes to emerging efforts to decolonize race-based approaches and antiracist pedagogies in sociology. Building on recent scholarship on settler colonialism and decolonization as well as her experiences of being unsettled, the author discusses the limitations of her critical sociological toolkit for understanding and teaching about the cultural violence associated with “Indian” sport mascots. By discussing an active-learning writing assignment and students’ work from an online course in sport and society, the author argues for sociologists to go beyond frameworks that conceptualize American Indians as a racial or ethnic group seeking greater inclusion in a multicultural nation and consider ongoing settler colonialism that structures U.S. society. The author contends that adding land back into sociological frameworks will help make visible legitimized racism and the cultural logic of elimination and replacement of Indigenous peoples of Turtle Island. To conclude, th...
Research Interests:
This article contributes to emerging efforts to decolonize race-based approaches and antiracist pedagogies in sociology. Building on recent scholarship on settler colonialism and decolonization as well as her experiences of being... more
This article contributes to emerging efforts to decolonize race-based approaches and antiracist pedagogies in sociology. Building on recent scholarship on settler colonialism and decolonization as well as her experiences of being unsettled, the author discusses the limitations of her critical sociological toolkit for understanding and teaching about the cultural violence associated with “Indian” sport mascots. By discussing an active-learning writing assignment and students’ work from an online course in sport and society, the author argues for sociologists to go beyond frameworks that conceptualize American Indians as a racial or ethnic group seeking greater inclusion in a multicultural nation and consider ongoing settler colonialism that structures U.S. society. The author contends that adding land back into sociological frameworks will help make visible legitimized racism and the cultural logic of elimination and replacement of Indigenous peoples of Turtle Island. To conclude, th...
Research Interests:
During the post–Reconstruction era in the United States, white southerners marked the cultural landscape with monuments and memorials honoring the Confederate cause and its heroes. These racialized symbols enjoyed an undisputed claim to... more
During the post–Reconstruction era in the United States, white southerners marked the cultural landscape with monuments and memorials honoring the Confederate cause and its heroes. These racialized symbols enjoyed an undisputed claim to public squares and parks throughout the South. It was not until the late twentieth century that commemorations to the black freedom struggle were publicly supported. This analysis examines the institutionalization of counter-memories of the civil rights movement in Memphis, Tennessee at the Lorraine Motel, the site of the assassination of Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. The author draws on collective memory, cultural trauma, and social movements research as well as critical race theory to explain the creation of the National Civil Rights Museum. Using primary and secondary data sources the author examines how social memory agents, a changing political culture, and the passage of time mediated the cultural trauma of King’s assassination and influenced the institutionalization of oppositional collective memories. Relying on Derrick Bell’s interest-convergence principle, the author concludes that the creation of this major memorial museum was a result of the convergence of white and black interests, specifically the economic and political interests of white elites and the cultural and political interests of black symbolic entrepreneurs.
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... 53 © Copyright ISSA and SAGE Publications (London ... Four of the administrators interviewed were from the Western Province South African Football Association (SAFA-WP) and seven worked at the national level in association with the... more
... 53 © Copyright ISSA and SAGE Publications (London ... Four of the administrators interviewed were from the Western Province South African Football Association (SAFA-WP) and seven worked at the national level in association with the South African Football Association (SAFA). ...
Research Interests:
... Overall, the gender composition of the rink management, the video games, the men's locker rooms ... The process by which club members adopted an identity as hockey players took place ... into and out of their elaborate hockey... more
... Overall, the gender composition of the rink management, the video games, the men's locker rooms ... The process by which club members adopted an identity as hockey players took place ... into and out of their elaborate hockey equipment, and during practices, games, fund-raisers ...