Program Description

Graduate students interested in the fields of sport history, exercise history, sport law, and/or the study of sport and gender can pursue doctoral training within the Department of Kinesiology and Health Education through the creation of an Interdisciplinary Sport Studies Degree Program. An interdisciplinary degree program includes coursework from at least two [and generally three] academic departments. Courses and areas of study are chosen based on the student’s research interests and proposed dissertation topic. Interdisciplinary students at UT have used courses from History, Public Affairs, American Studies, Law, Women and Gender Studies, Higher Ed. Administration, Exercise Science, and Sport Management in their degrees. A five-member faculty ad-hoc committee [three must be from Kinesiology] determines the student’s program of work and administers comprehensive exams at the completion of the student’s coursework. The members of this ad-hoc committee may or may not be members of the student’s dissertation committee.

The University of Texas offers unique resources for those interested in studying sport and exercise history. The H.J. Lutcher Stark Center for Physical Culture and Sports [www.starkcenter.org] includes the largest and most complete archive in the field of physical culture in the world, and also has extensive sport holdings. In addition to rich repositories of materials related to weight training, bodybuilding, physical fitness, and school physical education, the Todd-McLean Library contains more than 2000 books on golf, major sports magazines such as Sports Illustrated, Sport, Golf Digest and the Sporting News, and extensive collections on the Olympic Games, hunting and fishing, drugs and ergogenic aids in sport, and a wide variety of materials related to hygiene and the alternative health movement.  The serials collection at the Stark Center includes more than 2000 titles and the book collection—still being catalogued—is estimated at approximately 30,000 volumes. In addition to the Stark Center,  the holdings of the general libraries of the University of Texas are among the best in the world. The Briscoe Center for American History contains the archives of the University Interscholastic League and the records of the women’s physical education program at UT among other athletic resources. In addition, there are a number of faculty members in diverse departments on the UT campus who are actively involved in studying sport, exercise, and body ideology.

The Interdisciplinary Program was founded by Professor Jan Todd, the Roy J. McLean Fellow in Sport History (jan@starkcenter.org). In 2009, Thomas M. Hunt, J.D., Ph.D. (thomas_m_hunt@mail.utexas.edu) joined the faculty as well.  Letters of inquiry may be addressed to either faculty member depending on research interests.   Students interested in applying to the program are strongly encouraged to contact either Dr. Todd or Dr. Hunt by email prior to applying for admission.

Program Graduates and Dissertation Topics

• Pam Wuestenberg - "A Qualitative Analysis of the Athletic Admissions Process"
• Kim Beckwith - "Building Strength: Alan Calvert, The Milo Barbell Company and the Modernization of American Weight Training"
• Thomas M. Hunt - "Drug, Games: The International Politics of Doping and the Olympic Movement, 1960-2007"
• Nicholas Bourne - "Fast Science: A History of Training Theory and Methods for Elite Runners through 1975"