2022 Faculty Election
Kathleen Fitzgerald
Running for: Faculty Athletics Committee
- Teaching Associate Professor
- Sociology, College of Arts and Sciences
- Appointed: 2018
- PhD, Sociology, University of Missouri-Columbia (2003)
UNC Service
2022 University Teaching Awards Committee Member
Committee on Undergraduate Studies in Sociology
Honors Carolina Firsts Welcome Panel
McNair Scholar mentor
Reckoning Project and IAAR-SLATE participant
Candidate Statement
My personal interest in and appreciation of athletics as well as my professional critical orientation toward organized athletics at many levels (from children’s to collegiate to professional sports) perfectly positions me for this committee. I am a sociologist and my areas of specialization are inequalities (race, class, gender, and sexuality) and political sociology (policy and social movements). I have taught “Sociology of Sport” numerous times over my thirty years in academia (although I do not currently teach it at UNC). I have dozens of “student-athletes” in my classes every semester and respect their often-conflicting roles (“student” versus “athlete” rather than the sometimes misleading NCAA status of “student-athlete”). As a member of the Faculty Athletics Committee, I am prepared for similar role conflicts.
