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Dr Megan Chawansky

Lecturer

contact:
Sport and Service Management
TTA G4 Hillbrow
Gaudick Road
Eastbourne
BN20 7SR

Email: M.Chawansky@brighton.ac.uk

Research interests

  • Sport participation for girls and women
  • Feminist and Girlhood theories of sport and physical culture
  • Sport for international development and peace
  • Qualitative research methodologies, especially creative analytic practices and personal narrative
  • US sport and sporting cultures

Biography

Dr. Megan Chawansky was awarded her PhD in Sport and Exercise Humanities from Ohio State University (USA) in 2008. She was a postdoctoral research officer at The University of Bath from 2009-2011, and then worked as a lecturer at The University of Iowa.   Megan received her master’s degree in women’s studies from Ohio State University and acquired her undergraduate degree in psychology and women’s studies from Northwestern University. While at Northwestern, Megan was a captain and all-league performer as a member of the women’s basketball team.

Megan’s research focuses on socio-cultural power struggles around gender, and the way in which these struggles shape the subjectivities, bodies, and lives of girls and women.   Megan accesses various theoretical understandings of power, gender, and methodologies within her research.  Early in her career, Megan’s research outputs focused primarily on US women’s sports.   At present, Megan’s research focuses on the transnational sport for development and peace (SDP) movement, and her research outputs have been both theoretical and applied.   Megan was a fellow of Women Win, a Programme Director for PeacePlayers International-Cyprus, and also served as a development intern at the Women’s Sports Foundation (US).

Selected External Research Related Roles

University of Brighton Rising Star Award, 2013-2015

Women Win Fellowship Grant, 2010-11.

Coca-Cola Critical Difference for Women Graduate Studies Grant, 2006-7

Texas A&M University’s Diversity in Sport Dissertation Grant, 2006-7

Selected Conference Presentations

Chawansky, M. (2011).  “You’re Juicy:  Autoethnography as Evidence in SDP Research” at the North American Society for Sociology of Sport (NASSS). Minneapolis, MN.

Chawansky, M. (2011). “From Girl Power to Girl Effect:  Cultivating future girls in sport for development and peace programmes” at the ISSA World Congress for the Sociology of Sport. Havana, Cuba.

Chawansky, M. & Murray, S. (2010). “The SDP Gender Research Agenda:  Bridging theory and practice” at the International Sport for Development and Peace Association (ISDPA)Power of Sport Summit.  Boston, USA. (virtual presentation)

Chawansky, M. (2010). “Who is a sport tourist?  Locating Sport for Development and Peace (SDP) Volunteer Tourists” at the European Association for Sociology of Sport (EASS), University of Porto. Porto, Portugal. (poster presentation.

Research Publications

Chawansky, M. & Francombe, J. (2013).  Wanting to be Anna:  Examining Lesbian Sporting Celebrity on The L Word, Journal of Lesbian Studies, 17(2), 134-149.  
 
Chawansky, M. & Paule-Koba, A. (2012). The Court of Public Opinion:  Examining the CFE v. MHSAA lawsuit, Journal for the Study of Sports & Athletes in Education, 6(3), 255-274.

Chawansky, M. (2012). Good girls play sports:  International Inspiration and the Construction of Girlhood.  Feminist Media Studies, 12 (3), 473-6.

Chawansky, M. & Francombe, J. (2011).  Cruising for Olivia:  Lesbian Celebrity and the Cultural Politics of Coming Out in Sport. Sociology of Sport Journal, 28(4). 461-77.

Chawansky, M. (2011). New Social Movements, Old Gender Games?:  Locating Girls in the Sport for Development and Peace Movement. Research in Social Movements, Conflicts and Change, 32, 123-136. 

Chawansky, M. (2011). The Recruit.  Qualitative Research in Sport and Exercise, 3(1): 1-8.    

Chawansky, M. (2010). Letters to a Young Baller:  Exploring Epistolary Criticism. Qualitative Inquiry, 16 (9): 721-7.

Chawansky, M. (2010). Put Me In, Ms. Coach:  Sexual Rhetoric in the Locker Room. In Fuller, L.K. (Ed.) Sexual Sport Rhetoric:  Historical and Media Contexts of Violence (169-177). New York: Peter Lang.

Chawansky, M. (2005).  That Takes Balls: Towards a Feminist Coaching Methodology. Women’s Studies Quarterly, 33, 105-119. 

Megan Chawansky