Women in Sport and Exercise Academic Network Podcast

Dr Anke Samulowitz is a physiotherapist and psychologist. She works as a quality improvement facilitator at the Centre for Equity in Health Care in Gothenburg, Sweden, combined with research at the University of Gothenburg. She defended her thesis on “Pain, gender norms and psychosocial resources” in 2023. Her research focuses on pain and gendernorms, stereotypical ideas about men and women; how t...

Themes: How both researchers came to feminist sport sociology and began collaborating Women's recovery from depression — the link between movement, embodied experience and mental health Para-sportswomen's experiences of gendered ableism, body shaming and being unheard by coaches Medicinal cannabis in sport and questioning the "spirit of sport" The Brisbane 2032 Olympics legacy pr...

Themes: How both researchers came to feminist sport sociology and began collaborating Women's recovery from depression — the link between movement, embodied experience and mental health Para-sportswomen's experiences of gendered ableism, body shaming and being unheard by coaches Medicinal cannabis in sport and questioning the "spirit of sport" The Brisbane 2032 Olympics legacy pr...

Holly Thorpe  (she/her) is a Professor in the Sociology of Sport and Gender at the University of Waikato (New Zealand). She has published over 140 articles and chapters, and five books and nine co-edited books, including the  Palgrave Handbook of Menstruation Studies in Sport  (2026),  Feminist New Materialisms, Sport and Fitness  (2020), and  Women in Action Sport Cultures  (2016). She is co-edit...

Audio: Dr Nicole M. LaVoi, Ph. D. is a Senior Lecturer of social and behavioural sciences in the School of Kinesiology at the University of Minnesota and the Director of the Tucker Center for Research on Girls & Women in Sport. Through action-orientated, collaborative research, she translates data and answers critical questions that can make a difference in the lives of girls and women. As a l...

Dr Nicole M. LaVoi, Ph. D. is a Senior Lecturer of social and behavioural sciences in the School of Kinesiology at the University of Minnesota and the Director of the Tucker Center for Research on Girls & Women in Sport. Through action-orientated, collaborative research, she translates data and answers critical questions that can make a difference in the lives of girls and women. As a leading...

Verity Postlethwaite⁠ is a Lecturer in Strategic Event Management at Loughborough University and Co‑Chair of the ⁠WiSEAN 2026 Conference⁠ Organising Committee. ⁠Her work⁠ focuses on the social and community impacts of sport and major events. Verity currently plays a leading role in two major research projects as Loughborough University is a ⁠Spirit of 2012 Legacy Learning⁠ Partner and a ⁠UK Sport...

Verity Postlethwaite is a Lecturer in Strategic Event Management at Loughborough University and Co‑Chair of the WiSEAN 2026 Conference Organising Committee. Her work focuses on the social and community impacts of sport and major events. Verity currently plays a leading role in two major research projects as Loughborough University is a Spirit of 2012 Legacy Learning Partner and a UK Sport Social I...

⁠Dr Britta Sorensen⁠⁠ is a researcher specialising in female athletes’ pain experiences through holistic, biopsychosocial approaches. Her PhD examined how female ultra-endurance athletes perceive and manage pain, combining retrospective, longitudinal, and real-time methodologies. With 19 years in sport science teaching and management, an MPhil in Sport Performance Psychology, and soft tissue thera...

Dr Britta Sorensen is a researcher specialising in female athletes’ pain experiences through holistic, biopsychosocial approaches. Her PhD examined how female ultra-endurance athletes perceive and manage pain, combining retrospective, longitudinal, and real-time methodologies. With 19 years in sport science teaching and management, an MPhil in Sport Performance Psychology, and soft tissue therapis...

Dr Tegan Hartmann Tegan is a Senior Lecturer in Exercise Science at Charles Sturt University. Her research is focussed on women’s health, particularly examining the links between physical activity, mental wellbeing and complex health conditions. She is passionate about addressing conditions such as endometriosis, pregnancy loss and other under-researched areas that significantly impact women’s qua...

Dr Tegan Hartmann Tegan is a Senior Lecturer in Exercise Science at Charles Sturt University. Her research is focussed on women’s health, particularly examining the links between physical activity, mental wellbeing and complex health conditions. She is passionate about addressing conditions such as endometriosis, pregnancy loss and other under-researched areas that significantly impact women’s qua...

Dr Ross Julian: Researching Performance in Women’s Football (video version) Dr Ross Julian is the International Study Programme Coordinator, researcher, and lecturer at the University of Münster (Germany). His work focuses on advancing understanding of women’s health and performance in sport, with particular emphasis on sex-specific physiological responses and evidence-based training approaches fo...

Dr Ross Julian: Researching Performance in Women’s Football Dr Ross Julian is the International Study Programme Coordinator, researcher, and lecturer at the University of Münster (Germany). His work focuses on advancing understanding of women’s health and performance in sport, with particular emphasis on sex-specific physiological responses and evidence-based training approaches for female athlete...

Charlie is a Professor of Applied Sports and Exercise Science at St Mary's in the Faculty of Sport, Technology and Health Sciences. Charlie also has several consultancy roles outside of St Mary’s and is currently Chief Science Officer at Orreco, a sports bioanalytics compancy and creator of the FitrWoman app. He previously held positions at the British Olympic Association and the English Insti...

Aoife is Head of Department of Sport and Health Sciences in Technological University of the Shannon (TUS) Athlone , lead of the SHE Research Centre and co-founder of míde (an all island consortium for research on women in sport, exercise and physical activity). Aoife supervises PhD projects on sex and gender influences on sport and physical activity, many in the context of Gaelic games. Aoife is a...

Professor Elizabeth Pike has worked at the Universityof Hertfordshire since August 2017, where she is Professor and Head of the Institute of Sport, having previously worked at St Mary's University and the University of Chichester .   Elizabeth’s work takes as its focus issues of equality, diversity and inclusion in and through sport. She has published widely on these topics and has been an inv...

Dr Malika Felton is a Senior Lecturer in Health and ExercisePhysiology within the Centre for Midwifery and Women’s Health at Bournemouth University. She completed herpost-doc at University of Exeter as part of the Moving Through Motherhood research group, running co-design workshops on supporting physical activity during and after pregnancy. This research won her the Early Career Researcher Award...

Melissa Lodge,   MS Melissa Lodge is an Interdisciplinary Health Sciences PhD candidate and graduate assistant at the University of Rhode Island . Her research focusses on female athlete physiology, particularly under conditions of low energy availability (LEA), such as Relative Energy Deficiency in Sport (REDs) and its associated impact on health and performance across thelifespan. She has presen...

Stacey Pope is a professor based in the Department of Sport and Exercise Sciences at Durham University, UK. Professor Pope leads research in the area of women, football andinequalities. She is a leading guru in the area of women football fans. She has developed a new programme of work examining men’s responses to the growing visibility of women in sport and issues of sexism and misogyny. She also...

Dr Emma Cowley is a postdoctoral researcher at the SHE Research Centre in TUS Athlone . She is a Marie Sklodowska-Curie alumna and earned her PhD from Liverpool John Moore’s University ; her research focused on increasing adolescent girls' participation in physical activity. Emma leads the Invisible Sportswomen international research group which aims to address the gender data gap in sport and...

Dr Stacey Emmonds is an Associate Professor in SportsPerformance in the Carnegie School of Sport at Leeds Beckett University. Dr Emmonds has extensive experience of working with professional sports teams, governing bodies and policy makers on consultancy and research projects. Shehas published over 50 research articles, book chapters andconference presentations in relation to sports performance an...

Harry Meadley is an artist, researcher and skateboarder based in Leeds, UK, who initiates projects that, through inclusion, participation and co-production, seek to reclaim and reappropriate civic space. From municipal art galleries, universities and city centres to remote locations, Meadley’s socially engaged artistic practice aims to question not just the structures of power within society but o...

Dr Margie Davenport leads the Program for Pregnancy and Postpartum Health , and has published more than 175 manuscripts related to physical activity and sport during preconception, pregnancy and the postpartum period. Over the last decade she has worked with a number of National/International organisations including FIFA, the World Health Organization, International Olympic Committee, Sport Canada...

Dr Alex Culvin is the Director of Global Policy and StrategicRelations, Women’s Football at FIFPro , theglobal player union. Alex is also an academic at Leeds Beckett University at the Centre for Social Justice in Sport andSociety. She is a former professionalfootballer , who played in both Englandand Europe. Items discussed Former footballer experience and own transition experience out of footbal...