Research Library
Seed Grant Awardee: Devoney Looser
The other thing that roller derby was about, from the very first—which makes it uniquely different from baseball—was its powerful female athlete-stars, competing with and alongside men. That history isn’t incidental to roller derby’s becoming one of today’s most inclusive sports for gender non-binary athletes.
Seed Grant Awardee: Dongwoo Jason Yeom
In the field of physical training, previous studies proved that lighting intensity affects physical training performance significantly. However, most studies were conducted on elite athletes and there were few studies focused on gender difference which limits the opportunity for better training and to create an improved training environment for the general public.
Seed Grant Awardee: Eric Legg
Issues of sex, sexuality, and gender are inextricably linked to sport. Research within sport has examined issues such as experiences of LGBTQ employees (Melton & Cunninhgam, 2014), gender and sex diversity in sport (Cunningham & Sagas, 2008), sex testing (Pielke, 2017), and adolescent athlete views on masculinity (Legg & Varney, in progress).
Seed Grant Awardee: Floris C. Wardenaar
Athletes may experience (GI) symptoms exacerbated by the intensity of the exercise, jeopardizing performance and exercise recovery. Many of these athletes represent minority populations, including African Americans, who may be particularly vulnerable to nutrition-related GI issues. As African Americans contribute largely to the American Football roster, the standard, often dairy-based, recovery products provided by the athletic department may not always fit the need of a large part of the team as they may cause GI dysfunction and decrease athletic performance.
Seed Grant Awardee: Hyunglae Lee
It has been repeatedly demonstrated that female athletes have lower ankle stability and an increased risk of ankle injury when compared to male counterparts participating in similar sports activities. In order to reduce the risk of ankle injury in female athletes and help them maximize performance during sports activities, it is significant to understand mechanisms underlying the sex differences in ankle stability and utilize this knowledge in intervention to reduce the risk of an ankle injury.
Field Studies: NCAA Athletic Director Hiring Criteria and Career Pathways from 2010-19
Race/ethnicity and gender continue to serve as mediating factors in athletic director hires. Results provide evidence that race/ethnicity and gender do matter, but not in isolation – there is an intersection of race/ethnicity and gender that favors men over women and Whites over BIPOC athletic directors.
Seed Grant Awardee: Edward Vargas
The purpose of this research is to conduct a national online multi-racial survey on sports and race in America. Using critical race and racial threat theory, this study seeks to examine the relationships between public opinions in sports policy (views towards indigenous mascots, amateurism and athlete exploitation, doping, kneeling during the National Anthem...)
Seed Grant Awardee: Wenlong Zhang
Low-cost and lightweight wearable soft robots can be used in labor-intensive jobs and sports training to reduce muscle efforts and joint loads, prevent injuries, and improve performance.
Seed Grant Awardee: Troy McDaniel
Growing interest to track workouts and sport sessions, companies such as Amazon, Apple, Google, Samsung, and Fitbit are developing various hardware sensors and software suites to provide users a holistic experience to track and document their workouts. While effort has been made to track and improve workout sessions, the analytics are based on gross assessments pertaining to basic activities, e.g., step counts, or physiological signals, such as pulse rate.