Mary Jo Kane is a Professor in the School of Kinesiology and the director of the Tucker Center for Research on Girls & Women in Sport in the College of Education and Human Development. The Tucker Center is the first and only university-based institute for research on girls and women in sport in the nation. Dr. Kane is also an Adjunct Professor with the Department of American Studies in the College of Liberal Arts. She has served as director of the School of Kinesiology since 2005.

Professor Kane received her Ph.D. from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, in 1985 with an emphasis in sport sociology. She is an internationally recognized scholar who has published extensively on the media's stereotypic treatment of athletic females. She is also known as an expert on the passage, implementation and impact of Title IX.

In 1996, Professor Kane was awarded the first Endowed Chair related to women in sport: The Dorothy McNeill and Elbridge Ashcraft Tucker Chair for Women in Exercise Science and Sport. Dr. Kane was recently elected by her peers as a Fellow in the American Academy of Kinesiology, the highest honor in her field; she was inducted into the Academy in the fall of 2002. In spring 2003, Professor Kane received the Scholar of the Year Award from the Women's Sports Foundation. This award is given to researchers who make significant research contributions in the area of women's sports.

In addition to her scholarly pursuits, Professor Kane teaches a number of courses in the School of Kinesiology (e.g., Women in Sport & Leisure and Sport & Society) as well as conducts graduate seminars. In 2002, she was elected by her peers to serve as member of the University Senate's Faculty Consultative Committee.

Areas of specialization

Sport sociology

Research interests

Media representation of women in sport

Academic degrees

• Ph.D., summa cum laude, University of Illinois, Champaign, IL, 1985
  Major: education, Emphasis: leisure studies
• M.A., University of Illinois, Champaign, IL, 1982
  Major: leisure studies, Emphasis: research methodology 
• B.A., Webster University, St. Louis, MO, 1973
  Double major: sociology and anthropology

Selected publications

Kane, M.J., & Buysse, J. (2005). Intercollegiate media guides as contested terrain: a longitudinal analysis. Sociology of Sport Journal, 22(2), 214-238.

Kane, M.J. (in press). Sociological aspects of sport and physical activity. In J. Parks & J. Quarterman (Eds.), Contemporary sport management, 3rd ed. Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics.

Staurowsky, E., Lerner, P., Kane, M.J., Hogshead-Maher, N., Wughalter, E., Yiamouyiannis, A. (in press). Gender equity in physical education and athletic. S. Klein (Ed.), Handbook for achieving gender equity through education. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins Press

Iannotta, J., & Kane, M.J. (2002). Sexual stories as resistance narratives in women’s sports: Reconceptualizing identity performance. Sociology of Sport Journal, 19, 347-369.

Kane, M.J. (1998). Fictional denials of female empowerment: A feminist analysis of young adult sports fiction. Sociology of Sport Journal, 15, 231-262.

Full Vitae

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Revised February 2006