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Dr Kate Russell

BSc(Hons)(Lanc), SEDA(Coventry), PhD(Coventry), GradCertEdStud(HigherEducation)(Sydney), GradCert(Open(UK))

Senior Lecturer, Human Movement and Health Education

Doctoral Studies Research Progress Manager

Division Low Risk Ethics Committee

Email:

Phone: +61 2 9351 7056

Fax: +61 2 9351 2606

Building.Room: A36.402

Research interests

Health and sport

  • Body image and identity

Social structures, inequalities and social justice

  • Gender relations and gender identity
  • Sexuality and sexual identity

Keywords

Gender, body image, sexuality, sport, identity, sexual health education


Professional biography

Kate completed her PhD in 2002, investigating the development of body satisfaction and identity among women who play rugby, cricket and netball, and the role that context has in its formation. Key to her findings was the notion of the value attached to the body in terms of its functionality to complete a sporting task. Her work showed how elastic body satisfaction was between a sporting and social context. Subsequently, Kate was awarded a Fellowship of Social Sciences from the NZ–UK Link Foundation (2003), to spend six weeks in New Zealand collecting similar data and continues that work today.

Since joining the University in 2007 Kate’s research has developed to encompass a range of gender, health, education and sporting issues. Current research interests include the negotiation of gender in a range of sporting contexts such as swimming, snowboarding, men’s netball, female boxing, motor cross and BMX. Her work in sexual health is in collaboration with Dr Kellie Burns on a project to explore the implementation of school-based cervical cancer vaccination programs. This project has recently been extended to include both Canadian and US context (with A/Prof Caroline Fusco and Prof Genevieve Rail).

Kate is a chartered sport and exercise psychologist within the British Psychological Society's Division of Sport and Exercise Psychology. Kate also has extensive experience in delivering Motivational Interviewing to a variety of health professionals and is a member of the Motivational Interviewing Network of Trainers MINT

Kate’s current teaching areas focus on sport sociology, sport psychology, community health issues and honours supervision. Kate is also supervising a range of post graduate research students in sport/health sociology and psychology. She has previously worked at the universities of Gloucestershire and Coventry in the UK, delivering a variety of health, exercise and sport related topics.


Awards

  • Faculty of Education and Social Work Teaching Excellence Award 2008


Professional and community roles

  • Chartered Sport and Exercise Psychologist (C.Psychol), British Psychological Society

  • Member of the Motivational Interviewing Network of Trainers


Current projects

  • Completed: Teachers’ perception of the culture of Physical Education in Primary schools. Working with a local Sydney Public School on a professional development project to enhance the delivery of Physical Education in a Primary School setting. With Dr Donna O'Connor and Dr Wayne Cotton 2009-2010. Research funding $27, 500.
  • Completed: A qualitative study of school-based cervical cancer vaccination programs. This study investigated the role schools play in the national funded cervical cancer (Gardasil) vaccination program. With Dr Kellie Burns 2009-2010. Research grants awarded: Burns, K., & Russell, K (2010) Faculty Of Education and Social Work Program grant scheme $20,372. Burns, K., Russell, K., Rail, G. & Fusco, C. (2011). A comparative study of school-based HPV/cervical cancer vaccination programs and HPV-related knowledge in Australia and Canada. International Program Development Fund, The University of Sydney $6.000
  • Ongoing: LGBTQI Pre-service teacher experiences. This study seeks to understand the experiences of those pre-service teachers who identify as LGBTQI. In particular it aims to explore the ways in which issues around gender and sexuality are addressed by their education program and practicum experiences in addition to exploring the ways they may have to negotiate their identity in a school context.
  • Completed: Literature review ‘Enhancing Out of School Activities 9-12 Years Project’ with Dr Dorothy Botterell. Uniting Care Burnside, Macarthur Family Services Division (2008) $20,000
  • Ongoing: An investigation into the experiences of LGBTQI pre-service teachers
  • Ongoing: Media analyses of gender in sport. Including Olympic women boxers, Olympic women BMX riders and XGames motocross rider Ashley Fiolek.

Current research students

Project title Degree Research student
Gender regulation and social realities in contemporary high schools. PhD Victoria Rawlings
Adolescent Violence Towards Mothers and the Education Sector: Experiences, Attitudes and Perspectives of NSW Secondary Education Professionals MEd (Research) Ashleigh Haw
TBA MEd (Research) Brian Sinclair
A post-structural Foucauldian analysis of obesity discourses in weight-loss centres PhD Brittany Johnson

Selected publications

Books

Book chapters

Journal articles

  • Johnson, B & Russell, K. (2012). The construction of gendered bodies within competitive swimming: A Foucauldian perspective.. Psychology of Women Section Review, 14(2), 26–33.
  • Russell, K & J, Lemon. (2012). ‘Doing jibber’: female snowboarders negotiate their place in the snow . Asia-Pacific Journal for Health, Sport and Physical Education, 3(3), 239–252.
  • Brackenridge, C., Pawlaczek, Z., Bringer, J. D., Cockburn, C., Nutt, G., Pitchford, A., and Russell, K. M. . (2005). Measuring the impact of child protection through Activation States. Sport, Education and Society, 10(2), 239–256.
  • Russell, K. M. . (2004). On vs Off the pitch: The transiency of body satisfaction among female rugby players, cricketers, and netballers. Sex Roles, 51, 561–574.
  • Pitchford, A., Brackenridge, C., Bringer, J. D, Cockburn, C., Nutt, G., Pawlaczek, Z., and Russell, K. M. . (2004). Children in Football: Seen but not heard. Soccer and Society, 5(1), 43–60.
  • Brackenridge, C., Bringer, J., Cockburn, C., Nutt, G., Pitchford, A., Russell, K. M., and Pawlaczek, Z. . (2004). The Football Association’s Child Protection Research Project 2002-2006: Rationale, Design and First Year Results. Managing leisure: An International journal, 9, 30–46.

Conference papers

  • Rawlings, V., & Russell, K. (2012). Gender regulation and social realities in contemporary high schools. . In . Manchester, UK, 4-6 September 2012.
  • Attenborough, T., & Russell, K. (2012). Negotiating new sporting experiences: An inquiry into the factors influencing men’s participation on netball. . In Third International Conference on Sport and Society. Cambridge, UK, 23-25 July 2012.
  • Russell, K. (2009). Pre-service PE teachers: Femininity in the classroom. In North American Society for the Sociology of Sport. Ottawa, Canada, 4-7 November 2009.
  • Burns, K., & Russell, K. . (2009). Producing the self-managing girl-citizen in a climate of ‘healthy’ living . In North American Society for the Sociology of Sport. Ottawa, Canada, 4-7 November 2009.
  • Russell. K. M. (2002). Perceptions of femininity and the lesbian label: Positive and negative interpretations. . In Association for the Advancement of Applied Sport Psychology Association for the Advancement of Applied Sport Psychology, 2002 Conference proceedings (pp. 109–109). Tucson, Arizona, 30 Oct - 3 Nov 2002.
  • Russell, K. M. . (2001). The impact on self-identity: female participation in cricket. In Journal of Sport Sciences British Association of Sport and Exercise Sciences, Conference communications (19pp. 86–87). Liverpool, 29 Aug - 1 Sept 2000.
  • Russell, K. M. . (2000). Body on the line’: The impact of women’s participation in rugby. In Association for the Advancement of Applied Sport Psychology Association for the Advancement of Applied Sport Psychology, 2000 Conference proceedings (pp. 54–55). Nashville, Tennessee, 18 - 22 Oct 2000.

Other

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