PhD, Sociology, University of California, Santa Cruz

Biography

Dr. Douglas has taught courses at the undergraduate and graduate level in Women’s Studies and Integrated Studies programs as well as in Ethnic Studies and Sociology departments. She has taught a number of courses in related areas, namely, Race, Gender and Nation: Narratives from the Diaspora, Women in Cross Cultural Perspective, Women, Sport and Culture, Sport Sex: Gender Relations and The Contemporary Cultural Politics of Sport, Critical Race Theory in a Global Context, the Canadian Context of Critical Race Theory and Ethnographic Field Research.In addition to her work as an instructor Dr. Douglas has also been employed as a research associate, an equity consultant and a subject matter expert, designing courses for distance education. As a course writer she has designed units on feminism and postcolonial theory (Laurentian University), cultural studies and critical race theory (Athabasca University) and sport, physical activity, leisure studies and race (University of Manitoba).

Dr. Douglas was also a consultant for two television dramas that aired on the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) network: Da Vinci’s Inquest (1999-2005) and Intelligence (2005-2007).

Some of her work has been published in the Journal of Black Studies, Gender Place and Culture, the Journal of Sport and Social Issues, the Sociology of Sport Journal, and Sport Education and Society.

In July 2015, Dr. Douglas was invited to speak in Geneva, at the United Nations Headquarters, on the subject of Sport and Racism. Her presentation to the Ad Hoc Advisory Committee on the Elaboration of Complementary Standards was titled: Race, Gender and Sport: Female Athletes’ Experiences of Gendered Racism in North America.

In August 2015, Dr. Douglas was interviewed by Bleacher Report columnist, Merlisa Lawrence Corbett about the perception and treatment of Serena Williams. Her comments can be found in the September 3, 2015 article titled, “The problem with the conversation surrounding Serena Williams.” [Full Article]

Research

Dr. Douglas’ work is attentive to the continuing significance of the legacies of slavery, imperialism and colonialism, and the ways in which they inform the organization and operation of contemporary discourses of difference, social arrangements and social relations.

In addition to her teaching, Dr. Douglas is currently working on several writing projects.

One of the projects considers how the embodied nature of sport performance renders it a key site for the (re)production and (de)construction of black female corporeal integrity. Of interest is the relationship between the contemporary politics of black female embodiment and the legacies of enslavement and imperialism.

Works in Progress:

Chapter titled: “…Some of us are still brave: Sport and the social production of black femaleness” will appear in forthcoming edited collection: The Palgrave Handbook of Feminisms in Sport, Leisure and Physical Education.

Previous Research:

Investigating the Absence of Racial Diversity in Physical Education: Toward an Anti-Racist Praxis. Research Associate, University of Manitoba (2006-2009), Principal Researcher Dr Joannie Halas: Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada grant.

Selected Publications

Douglas, D. D. (2014). Private Mark Graham, Un/Known Soldier: Not just any body can be a citizen. Gender, Place and Culture: A Journal of Feminist Geography. (OnlineFirst, August 14, 2014).

Douglas, D.D. (2014). Forget me… not: Marion Jones and the politics of punishment. Journal of Sport and Social Issues, 38(1), 3-22.

Douglas, D.D. (April 2014). American National Biography, Oxford University Press, Inc. Article Subject: Althea Gibson. Invited Submission.

Douglas, D. D., & Halas, J. M. (2013). The wages of whiteness: Confronting the nature of ivory tower racism and the implications for physical education. Sport, Education and Society, 18(4), 453-474. (Available Online July 22, 2011).

Douglas, D. D. (2012). Venus, Serena and the inconspicuous consumption of blackness: A commentary on surveillance, racetalk and new racism(s). The Journal of Black Studies, 43(2), 127-145.

Douglas, D. D., & Halas, J. M. (2011). The wages of whiteness: Confronting the nature of ivory tower racism and the implications for physical education. Sport, Education and Society. (Online First).

Douglas, D. D. (2011). Connected: Jan Wade’s work in Altered. An essay about black Canadian artist Jan Wade’s recent project on display at the Grunt Gallery in Vancouver, British Columbia from February-March 2010. Vancouver, BC: Grunt Gallery, pp. 11-21.

Dr. Douglas’ research and writing are interdisciplinary, drawing upon cultural studies, critical race and gender studies, post colonial and transnational feminist scholarship. Dr. Douglas has taught courses at the undergraduate and graduate level in both Canada and the US. Her areas of interest are diverse and include necropolitics: violence, everyday racism, and racialized misogyny, sport and the social production of blackness, anti-racist and feminist qualitative methodologies, equity and the academy, and race and the law.