6th Annual Audrey-Beth Fitch Women's Studies Conference

On Thursday, March 17, 2011, the Women's Studies Program at California University of Pennsylvania is hosting the sixth-annual Audrey-Beth Fitch Conference.

From the swing of the bat to the tossing of a football, sports are engraved into our everyday society. But where there are claims of fairness in sports, such as Title IX and other legislations, sports are still as gendered and segregated as ever. The 6th Annual Audrey-Beth Fitch Conference will explore Sports and Social Justice in "Leveling the Playing Field: Examining Gender, Social Justice, and Sports." With events and programming revolving around the topic of sports and equality, it is going to be one of the most interesting conference topics encompassing different educational disciplines and athletics on campus and across other universities. The Keynote Speaker is Jessica Mendoza, President of the Women's Sports Foundation and softball Olympian. Also featured is Professor Deborah L. Blake, author of Getting in the Game: Title IX and the Women's Sports Revolution (2010) and a nationally recognized expert on gender eqality in sports. There will be speakers and presenters talking about all aspects of sports, social justice, Title XI, gender, feminism, equality, and other fascinating topics.

This year's theme invites participants to critically examine issues, actions, cases, policies, and practices that comprise, challenge, and/or arise from the nexus of sports and social justice issues. From Title IX to drug testing, from the Williams sisters to Ben Roethlisberger, from softball to hardball, participants will interrogate, investigate, and celebrate women and/in sports.

The conference begins at 8 a.m., Thursday, March 17 at California University of PA in the Natali Student Center, Performance Center. For more inofrmation, contact the women's studies program at 724.938.5245, visit calu.edu, or e-mail stu_womensstudies@calu.edu. Presenters for the conference need to register here.

Jessica Mendoza, President of the Women's Sports Foundation, is also the Athlete Ambassador for Team Darfur and Right to Play to help children in Africa. She is a board member of the National Education Association Foundation as well as a member of the U.S. Women's National softball team. In 2008, she was named Women's Sports Foundation Sportswoman of the Year along with earning a Silver Medal at the Beijing Olympic games.

In addition to Jessica Mendoza, Dr. Deborah Blake of the University of Pittsburgh will present on Title IX at 3:30 p.m. She is the autor of the book Getting in the Game: Title IX and the Women's Sports Revolution and is seen as an expert on gender and sports.

Deborah Brake is a Professor of Law and Distinguished Faculty Scholar at the University of Pittsburgh School of Law, where she has taught since 1998.  She teaches classes on Constitutional Law, Employment Discrimination Law, and Gender & the Law (including, every other year, a seminar on Title IX).  Her book, “Getting in the Game: Title IX and the Women’s Sports Revolution” was published in August, 2010, by New York University Press; media coverage of the book has included National Public Radio (“It’s Only a Game”), the Chronicle of Higher Education, and Inside Higher Ed.  Professor Brake writes broadly on issues of equality law, and much of her legal scholarship has addressed punitive responses to asserting equality rights.  Her article, “When Equality Makes Everyone Worse Off: The Problem of Leveling Down in Equality Law,” was selected for the prestigious Yale-Stanford Junior Faculty Forum. Her article, “Retaliation,” was cited by the U.S. Supreme Court in a recent Title VII retaliation case.  Her article, “The Invisible Pregnant Athlete and the Promise of Title IX” was included as a chapter in a new anthology, “Reversing Field: Examining Commercialization, Labor, Gender, and Race in 21st Century Sports Law.”  Before becoming a law professor, she was a senior counsel at the National Women’s Law Center, where she was involved in much of the Title IX litigation from the 1990s, and engaged in public policy advocacy and public education on a variety of gender issues, including Title IX.

6^th Annual Audrey-Beth Fitch Conference Schedule (tentative)
Leveling the Playing Field: Examining Gender, Social Justice and Sports

Presenters

8:15-9:15

Presenter: Stacy Tanner, MA
Title: Through a Feminist Lens: American Sport Film Since Title IX

Presenters: Katie Sullivan Barak, MA; Vikki Krane, PhD; Sally R. Ross, PhD; Cathryn Lucas-Carr, MEd.; Courtney Robinson, BS.
Title: Socially Responsible Images of Female College Athletes

9:30-10:45

Presenter: Lindsay Parks Pieper, MA
Title: Transsexual Athletic Inclusion:  A History of Cementing Sex Segregation, Promoting Patriarchy and Casting Deviancy in Sport

Presenter: Bonnie J. Siple, PhD, ATC
Title: Mentoring Black Women Students in Athletic Training Education: An Instrument of Social Justice

Presenter: Andrae Marak, PhD
Title: Baseball, Masculinity, Cultural Imperialism, and the Carranza Propaganda Machine

Presenter: Barbara J. Denison, PhD, MA; Jennifer S. Grassel, MS
Title: Contrasting Approaches to Gender Equality in Athletics: Examining China and the United States

11-12:15: Break for Lunch

Conference Presenters and members of the Cal U WST Advisory Board and Frederick Douglass Institute Board attend Lunch with invited speaker Dr. Dana Brooks, Professor and Dean of the College of Physical Activity and Sport Sciences at West Virginia University, speaking about Racism in Sports. Lunch sponsored by the Frederick Douglass Institute.       

12:30-1:45

Presenter: Jeanine Weekes Schroer, PhD
Title: Keeping Score: The NFL, Women’s Tennis, and the Gendered Identity of Sports

Presenter: Jaime Schultz, PhD, MA
Title: Sex Testing in Elite Women’s Sport and the Question of Advantage

Presenter: Carol M. Biddington, Ed.D.
Title: The Pregnant Athlete

Presenter: Dionne L. Koller, JD, MA
Title: Title XI: Defining the Content of Educated Based Sports Programs and the Content of Gender Equity in Sport

2:00-3:15

Presenter: Rachel M. Madsen, PhD
Title: Social Role Theory and the Preference for Male Coaches

Presenter:  Jennifer L. Hoffman, Ph.D, MA
Title: The Senior Woman Administrator & Equity in Intercollegiate Athletics:  A Social Justice Perspective Part II

Presenters: Nancy Jo Greenawalt, MS Paula M. Parker, EdD
Title: Preferences Revisited: A Qualitative Examination of Gender and Coaching

Presenter: Jeffrey N. Gerson, PhD
Title: The Declining Number of Women's Head Coaches in College Ice Hockey: An Oral History

Invited Speaker Dr. Deborah Brake, JD, University of Pittsburgh, author of “Getting in the Game: Title IX and the Women’s Sports Revolution”

4:45-5:15 Poster Session

Presenter: Lindsey McGuire, MS, ATC
Title: Female underrepresentation in athletic administration: A review and analysis of theories and reasoning

Presenter: LeKesha L. Perry, MA, MPPA
Title: When Playing Isn’t Enough: Perceptions of Hiring Women as Sports and Recreation Managers

Presenter: Vanessa MacKinnon, MA
Title: Gender Discrimination in Golf

Presenter: Libby Larsen, PhD, CSP
Title: Fast Horses and Strong Women: Racing in the Vicious Oval

Presenter: Lauren K. Marron
Title: A Place for Women in Athletic Administration

Presenter: Christina Cann
Title: Challenges to Achieving Gender Equity in School Athletics

Presenters: JP Staszel, MA, MS; Erin Paun, MA
Title: Exploring recent physical performance work completed with a series of collaborative artists as part of Annie Sprinkles “Love Art Lab”

Presenters: Vikki Krane, PhD, Sally R. Ross, PhD, Katie S. Barak, MA
Title: Authentic depictions: Women athletes' self-designed photographic portrayals

7:00 Keynote Speaker Jessica Mendoza

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