Professor Annie Gilbert Coleman is an Associate Professor of American Studies, the Concurrent Associate Professor of History, and the Director of Sport, Media, and Culture at the University of Notre Dame. She teaches and writes about outdoor sports and American culture.

She conducts research focused on sports studies, environmental history, public lands, the American West, and 20th-century American history.

Professor Coleman earned her BA in History from Williams College and her MA and PhD in History at the University of Colorado Boulder.

When talking about outdoor sports and recreation, people don’t always think of all the factors at play — access, environmental impact, gender, and race are just a few of the crucial but underrepresented aspects of the subject.

According to Professor Annie Gilbert Coleman, understanding how these factors intersect with outdoor sports and recreation is vital to improving the overall quality of those experiences. Knowing how outdoor recreation has grown into an industry also helps people understand the structural relationships to economies and tourism and how the dynamics of gender, class, and race come into play.

In this episode of the Sports Up Podcast, Meredith Syms is joined by Professor Annie Gilbert Coleman to talk about the intersection between outdoor sports and recreation, race, and gender. Professor Coleman talks about how she found herself in this particular area of study and why it’s important for people to learn about and understand the topic. She also shares what she hopes to achieve in teaching on the subject and what’s next with her research.