Cheryl Cooky
Please join me in congratulating Cheryl Cooky, associate professor of American Studies, on her selection as a Distinguished Scholar for the Center for Sociocultural Sport and Olympic Research (CSSOR) at California State University, Fullerton. Founded in 2012, the CSSOR promotes education and cross-disciplinary research concerning sport and the Olympic Games in their broadest cultural, social, and political dimensions. The CSSOR has been recognized as an International Olympic Studies Centre by both the International Olympic Committee and the United States Olympic Committee. In addition to being honored as a Distinguished Scholar, Professor Cooky will deliver her Distinguished Lecture at Cal State Fullerton in the spring of 2016.
Throughout her career, Cheryl’s research has centered on the ways gender shapes experiences, cultural meanings, and societal structures in the context of sports. Cheryl was chosen based on her outstanding research on women’s sports and the media, as well as the overall body of scholarship she has contributed to the sociocultural understanding of sport. Her June 2015 article with her research colleagues, “‘It’s Dude Time!’ A Quarter Century of Excluding Women’s Sports in Televised News and Highlight Shows,” has been accessed 9,678 times as of October 2015, and is the most-read article in the journal Communication and Sport. Her 2013 article, “Women Play Sport, But Not on TV” is the most-cited article in Communication and Sport.
Cheryl is currently serving as president of the North American Society for the Sociology of Sport, and recently organized the Society’s annual meeting in Santa Fe as conference program chair. Over 350 members from the US, Canada, Europe, and Asia attended. She is also working on several research projects, including a media framing analysis of the mainstream print news media’s coverage of the Jerry Sandusky/Penn State child sexual abuse scandal. In addition, based on a research proposal by graduate student Jasmine Linabary, Cheryl is collaborating with Jasmine and graduate students Danielle McDonald and Emily Fogle on an examination of the “#WhyIStayed” tweets that emerged after the Ray and Janay Rice domestic violence incident. The team is exploring the impact of the incident on feminist activism and advocacy for victims of domestic violence.
Congratulations, Dr. Cooky!
David A. Reingold
Justin S. Morrill Dean
College of Liberal Arts