Athens, Ga. – Pat Griffin, professor emerita of Social Justice Education at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst will speak at the 12th annual Andrea Carson Coley Lecture in Women’s Studies on “Sexism, Feminism and Lesbians in Sport: Unlocking the Locker Room Closet,” on Friday, April 14, at 12:15 p.m. in the M. Smith Griffith Auditorium in the Georgia Museum of Art. A reception honoring the Coley family will precede the lecture at 11:30 a.m. in the GMOA lobby.
Griffin is the author of Strong Women, Deep Closets: Lesbians and Homophobia in Sport (1998) and director of It Takes A Team: Education Campaign for LGBT Issues in Sport and an expert in lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender issues in athletics.
For the past 24 years, Griffin has led seminars on heterosexism/homophobia in sport at numerous colleges and universities as well as at coaches’ and athletic administrators’ association meetings around the United States and Canada. She is an NCAA recognized speaker and has served as an expert consultant on homophobia and heterosexism in sport for “Out for a Change: Addressing Homophobia in Women’s Sports,” (an educational video), the Gay, Lesbian, Straight Education Network, the Massachusetts Department of Education, and for numerous articles in the press, on television and in periodical publications. Griffin has appeared on ESPN, HBO Real Sports, and ABC Sports Outside the Lines.
The Andrea Carson Coley Lecture in Women’s Studies was endowed through a donation made by Andrew and Kathy Coley in memory of their daughter Andrea Carson Coley (1972-1993), who was a certificate candidate in Women’s Studies. Each spring, the lecture brings to campus scholars doing cutting-edge research in the area of lesbian and gay studies. For more information, contact the Institute for Women’s Studies at 706/542-2846.
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