Cheryl Cooky

Associate Professor

Academic Appointments:

• Associate Professor, Department of Health and Kinesiology and Women's Studies Program (joint appointment), Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN (2009-present)
  • Courtesy Appointment, Department of Sociology (2012-present)
  • Affiliated Faculty, American Studies (2011-present)
• Assistant Professor, Department of Kinesiology, California State University, Fullerton (2006-2009)

Research Interests:

Dr. Cooky’s scholarship is interdisciplinary, situated at the intersections of sociology, kinesiology (sociology of sport), and women’s/gender studies. Specifically, her research centers on the ways gender shapes experiences, cultural meanings and societal structures in sports contexts. Research demonstrates that girls are participating in sport in greater numbers than ever. Yet, there are still many girls who do not participate because of limited opportunities, structural barriers, and cultural ideologies. Cooky’s research explores these dynamics. Specifically, her research has examined the sociological aspects of urban recreation sport programs for low-income minority girls; the role of the media and popular culture and in shaping societal understandings of gender and sport; the framing of female athletes (most recently Caster Semenya) in mainstream news media; the quality and quantity of men’s and women’s sport in mainstream news media; and the construction of gendered athletic identities among girls who play sport. In 2010-11, she collaborated with the Women’s Sport Foundation to conduct the first ever evidence-based study of gender and sport participation in Montenegro (funded by United Nations Development Fund and the Montenegro Olympic Committee). In 2010, Cooky completed (with Michael Messner, Ph.D. University of Southern California) an update of a longitudinal study on gender in televised sports mews. The report examines the coverage of men’s and women’s sport in local and national televised news and highlight shows. The report was distributed online (3500+ downloads in 68 different countries).

Selected Publications:

• Cooky, C. & Dworkin, S. L. (in press). Policing the Boundaries of Sex: A Critical Examination of Gender Verification and the Caster Semenya Controversy. Journal of Sex Research.
• Dworkin, S. L., Swarr, A. L., & Cooky, C. (in press). Sport and sex and gender injustice: The case of South African track star Caster Semenya. Manuscript submitted to Feminist Studies.
• Cooky, C. Dycus, R. Dworkin, S. L. (2012). “What makes a woman a woman?" vs. "Our First Lady of sport": A comparative analysis of Caster Semenya in U.S. and South African news media.” Journal of Sport and Social Issues. [Published Online First: DOI: 10.1177/0193723512447940].
• Cooky, C. (2012). Success without honor: Cultures of Silence and the Penn State Scandal. Cultural Studies/Critical Methodologies, 12, 328-331. [DOI: 10.1177/1532708612446432].
• Dworkin, S. L. & Cooky, C. (2012). Sport, sex segregation, and sex testing: Critical reflections on this unjust marriage. American Journal of Bioethics, 12(7), 1-3. [DOI:10.1080/15265161.2012.680545].
• Wachs, F. L., Cooky, C., Messner, M. A., & Dworkin, S. L. (2012). Media frames and displacement of blame in the Don Imus incident: Sincere fictions and frenetic inactivity. Critical Studies in Media Communication. [Published iFirst: DOI: 10.1080/15295036.2011.646282].
• Cooky, C. & LaVoi, N. M. (2012). The unfinished revolution in women’s sport. Contexts: Understanding  people in their social worlds, 11, 42-46.
• Cooky, C., Wachs, F. L., Messner, M. A., and Dworkin, S. L. (2010) It's Not About the Game: Don Imus, Race, Class, Gender and Sexuality in Contemporary Media. Sociology of Sport Journal, 27, 139-159.  
• Cooky, C. (2009). "Girls just aren’t interested":  The social construction of interest in girls' sport. Sociological Perspectives, 52(2), 259-283.
• Cooky, C. & McDonald, M. (2005). "If You Let Me Play: Young Girls 'Insider-Other' Narratives of Sport". Sociology of Sport Journal, 22(2), 158-177.
• Messner, M. A., Duncan, M. C. & Cooky, C. (2003). "Silence, Sports Bras, and Wrestling Porn: The treatment of women in televised sports news and highlights". Journal of Sport and Social Issues, 27(1), 38-51.

Invited, Peer-Reviewed Book Chapters:

• Cooky, C., & Dworkin, S. L. (in press). “Running down what comes naturally: South Africa’s Caster Semenya and discourses of biological sex.” In L. Wenner (Ed.), Fallen heroes: Sport, media, and celebrity culture. New York, NY: Peter Lang Publisher.
• McDonald, M. G. & Cooky, C. (in press). “Interrogating discourses about the WNBA’s ‘bad girls’: Intersectionality and the politics of representation. In L. Wenner (Ed.), Fallen Heroes: Sport, Media, and Celebrity Culture. New York: NY: Peter Lang Publisher.
• Cooky, C. (2010). Do Girls Rule?: Understanding Popular Culture Images of "Girl Power!" and Sport. In S. Spickard Prettyman & B. Lampman (Eds). Learning Culture Through Sports: Exploring the Role of Sports in Society, 2nd. edition. Lanham, Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield.
• Cooky, C. (2009). Getting Girls in the Game: Negotiations of Structure and Agency in a Girls’ Recreational Sport Program. In E. Smith (Ed.).  Sociology of Sport and Social Theory.  Champaign, IL:  Human Kinetics Publishers.
• Cooky, C. (2006). "Strong Enough to be a Man, But Made a Woman: Discourses of Sports And Femininity in Sports Illustrated for Women". In L. K. Fuller (Ed.), Sexual Sports Rhetoric. New York: Haworth Press.

Book Reviews:

• Cooky, C. (2010). "Sports and Their Fans: The History, Economics and Culture of the Relationship Between Spectator and Sport, by Kevin G. Quinn." The Sport Psychologist, 24, 119-121.
• Cooky, C. (2006). "In the Game: Gay Athletes and the Cult of Masculinity". Sociology of Sport Journal, 23, 314-323.

Policy Publications:

• Messner, M. A. & Cooky, C. (2010). Gender in Televised Sports: News and Highlights Shows, 1989-2009. Los Angeles: USC Center for Feminist Research -- http://www.usc.edu/dept/cfr/html/home.htm

Scholarly Online Publications

• Cooky, C. & Dworkin, S. L. (2012, August 10). “Woman enough to win?” The Society Pages: Social Science that Matters. W.W. Norton & Company, Inc. http://thesocietypages.org/specials/sex-testing/

Recent Conference Presentations: 

• Cooky, C. & Dworkin, S. L. (2011, November). Running down what comes naturally:  Gender verification and South Africa’s Caster Semenya. Paper presented at the North American Society for the Sociology of Sport conference. Minneapolis, MN.
• Cooky, C., Begovic, M., Sabo, D., Oglesby, Carole A. & Snyder, M. (2011, November). Addressing community sport globally: Collaboration across borders. Paper presented at the North American Society for the Sociology of Sport conference. Minneapolis, MN.  
• Cooky, C. Begovic, M., Sabo, D., Oglesby, Carole A. & Snyder, M. (2011, November). Gender and sport in Montenegro. Paper presented at the Girls & Women in Sport conference. Minneapolis, MN.
• Cooky, C., Begovic, M., Sabo, D., Oglesby, C. A., & Snyder, M. (2011, October). Little difference, huge impact: The gender challenge to sport in Montenegro. Paper presented at the Play the Game conference. Cologne, Germany.
• Cooky, C., Begovic, M., Sabo, D., Oglesby, C, Snyder, M. (August 2011). Gender and sport in Montenegro. Paper presented at the Society for the Study of Social Problems. Las Vegas, NV.
• McDonald, M. G. & Cooky, C. (2011, July). Interrogating discourses about the WNBA’s “bad girls”: Intersectionality and the politics of representation. Paper presented at the International Sociology of Sport Association, Havana, Cuba.

Grants and Funded Projects:

• Clifford B. Kinley Trust. Sports, Physical Activity and the Well- Being of Urban and Rural Girls.  $19,435. Principal Investigator.
• International/ Montenegro Olympic Committee and United Nations Development Program. Gender and Sport in Montenegro. $16,031.02. Principal Investigator.

Honors and Awards:

• Purdue University Title IX Distinguished Service Award, 2012
• Purdue University Difference Makers, 2011
• Honorable Mention, Sociology of Sport Journal Article of the Year Award for "If You Let Me Play: Young Girls' Insider-Other Narratives of Sport"
• Dorothy Harris/Women's Sports Foundation Dissertation Scholarship
• Haynes Foundation Dissertation Fellowship

Recent Invited Lectures and Presentations:

• Does looking good matter more than playing well?: Female athletes in U.S. media.
  Hanyang University. Seoul, South Korea. August 24, 2012.
• Policing the boundaries of sex: Gender verification and the Caster Semenya controversy. International Congress of Sport Sciences. Mokpo, South Korea. August 22, 2012.
• Girls’ and Women’s Participation in Sport: Local and Global Perspectives.
  Women and Gender Studies Linda Arnold Carlisle Professorship Lecture Series.
  University of North Carolina, Greensboro. Greensboro, NC. March 23, 2012.
• Physical Activity and Sport: Rural/Urban Considerations for Improving Girls and Women’s Health. United Nations Commission on the Status of Women. New York, NY. February 27, 2012.
• The Paradoxes of Social Justice in Women’s Sport: Local and Global Perspectives. 
  Sociology Symposium: Paradox of Social Justice. California State Polytechnic University, Pomona, CA.  February 9, 2012.

Service to the Profession:

• Editorships and Editorial Boards:
  • Sociology Perspectives, 2011.
  • Sociological Perspectives, 2010.
  • Sociology of Sport Journal, 2007-2010.

• Professional Offices
  • Society for the Study of Social Problems. Division Chair. Sport, Leisure and the Body, 2011-2013.
  • North American Society for the Sociology of Sport. Member-at-Large. Board of Directors, 2011-2013.

• Professional Memberships:
  • North American Society for the Sociology of Sport (NASSS)
  • Society for the Study of Social Problems (SSSP)
  • Pacific Sociological Association (PSA)
  • Sociologists for Women in Society (SWS)
  • American Sociological Association (ASA)
  • National Women’s Studies Association (NWSA)

Recent Public Scholarship:

  Opinion Articles:

• Cooky, C. (2011, July 15). “Look beyond stereotypes of women in sports” Indianapolis Star. Op-ed. http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2011107160310
• Cooky, C. (2011, July 18). “Women’s soccer coverage must get beyond gender roles.” Detroit Free Press. Op-ed. http://www.freep.com/article/20110718/OPINION05/110718051/Online-commentary-Women-s-soccer-coverage-must-get-beyond-gender-roles?odyssey=tab

Media Appearances:

 Radio:

• 2012, June 25. Interview on All Things Considered, WBAA Purdue National Public Radio broadcast. “The Progress of Title IX, 40 Years Later.”  http://wbaa.org/post/progress-title-ix-40-years-later
• 2012, June 23. Interview on Bloomington Community Radio, Daily Local News. “Four Decades of Title IX.” http://wfhb.org/news/four-decades-title-ix
• 2011, November 11. Interview on All Things Considered. Michigan National Public Radio broadcast. “Athletic Scandals and the Culture of Sports.” http://michiganradio.org/post/athletic-scandals-and-culture-sports

 Print and Online News Articles:

• Wilson, M. “Title IX moves beyond sports to ‘new frontier’ of STEM. Daily Herald. September 9, 2012. http://www.dailyherald.com/article/20120909/news/709099921/
  DuBois, S. “Sex, muscles and basketball: How do you sell a woman?” Fortune Magazine/CNN Money. August 28, 2012. http://management.fortune.cnn.com/2012/08/15/female-athletes-wnba/?iid=SF_F_River
• Matisak, A. “Ženám stací rovnaká štartovacia ciara.” (Will the increased number of women at the Olympic Games influence global equality?). August 11, 2012. Pravda (Major News Daily in Slovakia) http://spravy.pravda.sk/zenam-staci-rovnaka-startovacia-ciara-dxf-/sk_svet.asp?c=A120810_160653_sk_svet_p12
• Ebner, D. “Olympic Games inch closer toward gender equity. The Globe & Mail. August 10, 2012.
  http://www.theglobeandmail.com/sports/olympics/olympic-games-inch-closer-toward-gender-equity/article4475752/
• Rosenfield, S. “Why we ignore women’s sports.” Outside Magazine. July 17, 2012.
  http://www.outsideonline.com/outdoor-adventure/xx-factor/Why-We-Ignore-Womens-Sports-20120717.html?page=1
• Hines, K. “Damage control: Schools must handle fallout when scandals occur.” Tulsa World. Tulsa, Oklahoma. April 14, 2012. http://www.tulsaworld.com/sportsextra/article.aspx?subjectid=96&articleid=20120414_231_B1_CUTLIN501788&r=467

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