Saturday, February 4, 2023 · 1:00 - 2:30 p.m. · CASE 4th Floor Auditorium
Nicholas Villanueva, Assistant Professor of Ethnic Studies and Director of Critical Sports Studies
In the late 1970s, scholars from North America began to incorporate gender in their critique of contemporary sports. Soon thereafter, European sports scholars also embraced gender as a transformative concept. Initially, scholars focused on women athletes as subjects, but in the 1980s they expanded their perspectives. Rather than considering gender a distinct category, scholars redefined it as a dynamic relational process. The focus shifted from women athletes to a cultural critique of sport using intersectionality and cultural studies perspectives. Scholars purported that gender in sport intersects with other dimensions of human experience and identity such as age, ethnicity, race and social class.This CU on the Weekend talk with Professor Nicholas Villanueva will examine the intersectionality of gender and sport through these many dimensions, explore existing inequities and share how Critical Sports Studies scholars are working to make sport more inclusive.
Nicholas Villanueva is an assistant professor of Ethnic Studies and director of critical sports studies at CU Boulder. He is the author of three books and has a forthcoming book, Rainbow Cattle Co.: Liberation, Sport, and Gay Rodeo (University of Nebraska Press). Villanueva received two national book awards for his work in Latinx studies: Border Regional Library Association, Southwest Book of the Year, 2017, and the 2018 National Association of Chicano & Chicana Studies, Tejas Foco Non-fiction Book of the Year. Professor Villanueva helped create CU Boulder’s Critical Sports Studies certificate program, which is a discipline that studies social issues in sport and society. Villanueva’s current research examines the inclusion of LGBTQ+ athletes in sport. Prior to 2020, his national service was with the United States Department of the State and its Sport for Diplomacy program. He also provided Critical Sports Studies workshops for athletes and coaches at the U.S. Olympic Training Center. Professor Villaneuva has been recognized by the North American Society of Sports History and in 2022 he was the recipient of the CU Boulder Emerging Scholar Award. He currently competes in rodeo with his husband where they hope to break homophobic stereotypes in the sport. Villaneueva was born and raised in Indiana, was a member of the US Army Reserves (1993-2001) and is thrilled to call Colorado home.