Mary Jo Kane is Professor and Director of the School of Kinesiology. She is also 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. In 2001, Dr. Kane was elected by her peers as a Fellow in the American Academy of Kinesiology, the highest honor in her field and was inducted into the Academy in the fall of 2002. In the spring of 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 2007, the Institute of International Sport named Kane one of the 100 Most Influential Sports Educators.

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) and conducts graduate seminars as well. In 2002, she was elected by her peers to serve as member of the University Senate's Faculty Consultative Committee and from 2006-08 she served as the vice-chair of the University Senate.

Areas of specialization

Sport sociology; Title IX

Research interests

Media representations of women's 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

LaVoi, N. M., & Kane, M. J. (in press). Sport sociology for sport management. In P. Pedersen, L. Thibault, & J. Quarterman (Eds.), Contemporary Sport Management (4th ed.). Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics.

Kane, M. J., Leo, P. & Holleran, L. (2008). Issues related to academic support and performance of Division I student-athletes: A case study at the University of Minnesota. Journal of Intercollegiate Sports, 1(1), 98-129.

Staurowsky, E., Lerner, P., Kane, M. J., Hogshead-Maher, N., Wughalter, E., Yiamouyiannis, A. (2007). Gender equity in physical education and athletics. In S. Klein (Ed.), Handbook for achieving gender equity through education, 2nd ed. (pp. 381-410). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Kane, M. J. (2007). Sociological aspects of sport and physical activity. In J. Parks & J. Quarterman (Eds.), Contemporary sport management, 3rd ed. (pp. 389-414). Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics.

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

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.

Keynote addresses

Maxwell, H., & Kane, M. J. Critical analysis of consumer responses to representations of  women's sports. Paper to be presented at the annual North American Society for the Sociology of Sport (NASSS) conference, Ottowa, Ontario, November, 2009.

Kane, M. J. Media, gender, and sport in the 21st century. School of Arts & Sciences Diversity Initiative, Central Connecticut State University, New Britain, CT, October 2008

Kane, M. J. The federal law known as Title IX: What’s fact vs. fiction got to do with it? Women, Gender, & Sexuality Studies Program, Central Connecticut State University, New Britain, CT, November, 2007.

Kane, M. J. Facts, fiction, and the future: Men’s sports and women’s opportunities. Commemoration of the 35th Anniversary of the Passage of Title IX, Stanford University Law School, Palo Alto, CA, April, 2007.

Full vitae

Download full curriculum vitae [.pdf]

Revised August 2008