Cassidy Gabriel

Education: B.A. Political Science and Women’s and Gender Studies, Columbia University, 2021

Areas of Interest:
sex/gender in sport; feminist science and technology studies; sociology and history of the body; embodiment; categories of difference; athlete rights and well-being; sociolegal studies; health and medicine; reproduction

Cassidy is a Ph.D. student in the combined program in Sociology and Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies. She is interested in how we think about, manage, and regulate bodies and difference in sport, with a particular focus on sex/gender. Her research focuses on the category of “woman” in sport and understanding how scientific knowledge and expertise is deployed to reify and maintain sex/gender as a binaristic organizing principle within sport and biomedicine. She is interested in the implications of this work on approaches to inclusivity and participation in sport, as well as athlete performance, well-being, and health outcomes. Through a combination of scholarship, community work, and coaching, she aims to foster more positive sporting and movement experiences for women and gender-diverse athletes.

Her last research project traced the history of regulations prohibiting participation in soccer on the basis of sex/gender from the late 19th century through the present, and how sex/gender was constructed and enacted into sport, by examining the intersection of science, race, nation, and policy. She received her B.A. from Columbia University in 2021 with honors in Political Science and a concentration in Women’s and Gender Studies as a Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellow.