Holly Thorpe
- Boarders, Babes and Bad-Asses: Theories of a Female Physical Youth Culture (2007)
Holly Alysha Thorpe is a New Zealand academic, and is a full professor at the University of Waikato, specialising in sports sociology.
Academic career
Thorpe was a competitive snowboarder.[1] She completed a PhD titled Boarders, Babes and Bad-Asses: Theories of a Female Physical Youth Culture at the University of Waikato in 2007. Thorpe then joined the faculty of the university, rising to full professor in 2019.[2] Her inaugural professorial lecture described how new sports like snowboarding came to be included in the Olympic Games.[3] Her research covers gender, youth, extreme and action sports and how sport can contribute to development.[1][3]
Thorpe is a principal investigator in the Te Pūnaha Matatini Centre of Research Excellence.[4][5] She has written five books and edited a further nine.[6] Thorpe is a founding member of WHISPA, a High Performance Sport NZ working group on healthy women in sport.[7]
Awards
In 2009 Thorpe was awarded a scholarship by the Leverhulme Trust to visit the University of Brighton, where she wrote a book about snowboarding culture.[1]
Thorpe was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship in 2011 to visit Georgetown University to compare the extreme sport experiences of New Zealand and American children and youth.[8][1] and a Leverhulme Fellowship.[4] In 2018 she was awarded a Royal Society Early Career Research Excellence Award for Social Sciences, and in the same year was awarded Fellowship of the North American Society for the Sociology of Sport.[4]
Thorpe was awarded a James Cook Research Fellowship in 2021, for research titled 'Reconceptualizing Wellbeing: Women, Sport and Communities of Belonging'.[9] Her project explores the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on women, and their strategies for maintaining connection, wellbeing and physical health during the pandemic.[9][10]
Selected works
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/32/Scholia_logo.svg/40px-Scholia_logo.svg.png)
- Holly Thorpe (December 2009). "Bourdieu, Feminism and Female Physical Culture: Gender Reflexivity and the Habitus-Field Complex". Sociology of Sport Journal. 26 (4): 491–516. doi:10.1123/SSJ.26.4.491. ISSN 0741-1235. Wikidata Q123411046.
- Holly Thorpe (May 2008). "Foucault, Technologies of Self, and the Media: Discourses of Femininity in Snowboarding Culture". Journal of Sport & Social Issues. 32 (2): 199–229. doi:10.1177/0193723508315206. ISSN 0193-7235. Wikidata Q123411051.
- Holly Thorpe; Belinda Wheaton (October 2011). "'Generation X Games', Action Sports and the Olympic Movement: Understanding the Cultural Politics of Incorporation". Sociology. 45 (5): 830–847. doi:10.1177/0038038511413427. ISSN 0038-0385. Wikidata Q123411054.
- Kim Toffoletti; Holly Thorpe (February 2018). "Female athletes' self-representation on social media: A feminist analysis of neoliberal marketing strategies in "economies of visibility"". Feminism & Psychology. 28 (1): 11–31. doi:10.1177/0959353517726705. ISSN 0959-3535. Wikidata Q123411005.
- Holly Thorpe; Nida Ahmad (18 June 2013). "Youth, action sports and political agency in the Middle East: Lessons from a grassroots parkour group in Gaza". International Review for the Sociology of Sport. 50 (6): 678–704. doi:10.1177/1012690213490521. ISSN 1012-6902. Wikidata Q123411058.
- Thorpe, Holly (27 October 2022). "New Zealand's slippery slopes: the uncertain future of snow sports in a climate emergency". Alaska Beacon. Retrieved 12 November 2023.
References
- ^ a b c d "Fulbright award turns Waikato academic into sporting ambassador". www.waikato.ac.nz. 26 October 2011. Retrieved 12 November 2023.
- ^ "Professorial appointments announced". www.waikato.ac.nz. 29 January 2019. Retrieved 12 November 2023.
- ^ a b "Prof's first public lecture promises close-to-home appeal – Raglan Chronicle". 29 August 2019. Retrieved 12 November 2023.
- ^ a b c "Academic profile: Holly Thorpe". profiles.waikato.ac.nz. University of Waikato. Retrieved 12 November 2023.
- ^ "Holly Thorpe". www.tepunahamatatini.ac.nz. Retrieved 12 November 2023.
- ^ "Holly Thorpe". The Conversation. 1 October 2015. Retrieved 12 November 2023.
- ^ Thorpe, Holly (9 July 2022). "How women in fitness became lifesavers". Newsroom. Retrieved 12 November 2023.
- ^ "Holly Thorpe | Fulbright Scholar Program". fulbrightscholars.org. Retrieved 12 November 2023.
- ^ a b "Holly Thorpe". Royal Society Te Apārangi. Retrieved 12 November 2023.
- ^ McFadden, Suzanne (19 November 2021). "Finding a balance: Are Kiwi women coping with Covid?". Newsroom. Retrieved 12 November 2023.