Papadakis Integrated Sciences Building (PISB), Room 108, located on the northeast corner of 33rd and Chestnut Streets.
BIOMED Seminar
Title:
Men and Women in Sports: The Last Great Divide
Speaker:
Stephen F. Gambescia, PhD, MEd, MBA, MHum, MLS, MCHES
Professor, Health Services Administration
LeBow College of Business
Director, Doctor of Health Science Program
College of Nursing and Health Professions
Drexel University
Details:
Inspired by a faculty and student trip to London to see the 2012 Paralympics, I mused that human performance is a matter of degree of performance for who can be “stronger, jump higher, and be faster,” and not a matter of principle for who is a man and who is a woman. In everyday life across the world, divisions between men and women based on antiquated concepts of performance capabilities are breaking down. Many “barriers” have been broken in sports; it may be time to consider mixed competition at the elite level-- especially in non-contact sports—and leave sex and gender aside.
The project proposes nine interdisciplinary (social sciences and human performance) research questions to argue for or against the radical move to have all people compete together in noncontact sports but play by the rules of eligibility. The project hedges that after a critical analysis of the socio-cultural and human performance arguments against men and women competing in noncontact sporting events and leagues, if we continue to segregate men and women in sports, and at any level, de facto it supports the social, political, and economic practice that separate but equal is just fine.
Biosketch:
Dr. Gambescia’s research area can be described as macro public policy considerations in a range of areas such as public health, healthcare, health promotion/disease prevention, education, social welfare, nonprofit management, sport and society, and socio-cultural issues. His publications in peer-reviewed journals is approaching 90. Aside from academic publishing in these areas he writes commentaries, for which some are syndicated. He has over 100 published commentaries in media outlets.
His academic formation in seven academic programs (sociology, communication, curriculum & instruction, health policy, business administration, legal studies, and the humanities, makes for an athletic intellectual approach to research questions and applications aimed at improving the human condition.