Margaret Carlisle Duncan, Ph.D. 

Professor 

Interests and Expertise
Dr. Duncan's ongoing research interest relates to portrayals of female athletes and women's sports in the media. She has studied media depictions of women's bodies and body practices; in particular, she has examined how body ideals are subtly created and reproduced through certain features of photographs and written text in popular magazines. Another line of ongoing research focuses on perceptions of physical disability and people with disabilities. She has also written about the power of narrative in evoking the vividness of experience, especially our experience of our bodies. Currently Dr. Duncan is studying the intersections of race, class, and gender and how they shape one's experience of one's body. In particular, she is interested in how these social factors interact to affect body image and body culture. Dr. Duncan is a former president of the North American Society for the Sociology of Sport (NASSS), a former president of The Association for the Study of Play (TASP), and a past editor of the scholarly journal, Play & Culture. She is also on several editorial boards. She is a Fellow of the American Academy of Kinesiology and Physical Education (AAKPE), and was named a Wisconsin Teaching Fellow, and currently serves on the advisory board of The Women's Sports Foundation.

Recent Publications
Duncan, M.C., Bunker, L.K., Freedson, P., Greenberg, D., Oglesby, C., Sabo, D., & Wiese-Bjornstal, D. (1997). Physical Activity and Sport in the Lives of Girls: Physical and Mental Health Dimensions from an Interdisciplinary Approach. Report of the President's Council on Physical Fitness and Sports. Minneapolis, MN: Center for Research on Girls and Women in Sport.

Duncan, M.C. (1998). Stories we tell ourselves about ourselves. Sociology of Sport Journal, 15, 95-108.

Schell, L.A. & Duncan, M.C. (1999). Two steps forward, one step back: A content analysis of the 1996 Paralympic Games. Adapted Physical Activity Quarterly, 16, 27-47.

Duncan, M.C. (2000). Reflex: Body as memory. Sport Sociology Journal, 17, 60-68 .

Duncan, M.C., Messner, M.A., & Cooky, C. (2000). Gender stereotyping in televised sports in 1989, 1993, and 1999.

Published grant report. The Amateur Athletic Foundation of Los Angeles. Also [online]. Available: http://www.aafla.com

Duncan, M.C. (2001). Guest editor of Special Sociology of Sport Journal issue: The Sociology of Ability and Disability in Physical Activity, 18, Introduction to issue, 1-4.

Duncan, M.C., & Aycock, A. (In press). In S. Jackson and D. Andrews' Sport, Culture and Advertising: Identities, Commodities and the Politics of Representation, Fitting Images: Advertising, Sport, and Disability.

Messner, M.A., Duncan, M.C., and Cooky C. (2003), Silence, Sports Bras, and Wrestling Porn: Women in Televised Sports News and Highlight Shows. Journal of Sport and Social Issues, 27, 38-51

Duncan, M.C. (in press). Bodies in motion: The sociology of physical activity. To appear in Quest as part of the Academy Papers.

Duncan, M.C. (2006). The promise of Artemis. The Scholar and Feminist online, 4.3, 1-18. Retrieved September 26, 2006 from http://www.barnard.edu/ sfonline/sport/ printmdu.htm

Davis, N.W., & Duncan, M.C. (2006). Sports knowledge is power: Reinforcing masculine privilege through fantasy sport participation. Journal of Sport and Social Issues, 30, 244-264.

Messner, M.A., Duncan, M.C., & Willms, N. (2006). This revolution is not being televised. Contexts: Understanding People in Their Social Worlds, 5, 34-38.

Duncan, M.C., Messner, M.A., & Willms, N. (2005). Gender in televised sports: News and highlight shows 1989-2004. Also available online at http://www.aafla.org/ 9arr/ResearchReports/tv2004.pdf

Duncan, M.C., & Robinson, T.T. (2004). Obesity and body ideals in the media: Health and fitness practices of young African-American women. Quest, 56, 77-104.

Speaker Topics 
Athletes, Media and
Disability, Social Perceptions of
Physical Activity and Obesity
Women’s Body Culture and Practices

Education
Ph.D., Purdue University, Leisure Studies, 1984
B.A., Macalaster College,English, Minors in Philosophy and Religion, 1973