JFSD announces inaugural Early Career Scholar Award recipient Sarah Zipp

The Journal of Sport for Development is delighted to announce Dr. Sarah Zipp has been selected as the inaugural JSFD Early Career Scholar Award recipient. The annual award, established in 2019, recognizes an early career JSFD author in recognition of significant scholarly contributions to the sport for development field.

Award Winner

Dr. Sarah Zipp’s research examines gender roles, norms and barriers in sport for development (SFD). Her work builds on feminist research in sport, melding together a capabilities approach with a “gender lens” that cuts across disciplines and has broader impact toward policy and practice.

Her academic background in international development, sport administration and anthropology has helped her explore SFD from different perspectives. She has published in the Journal of Sport for Development, the Journal of Sport Management and Sport in Society. She also co-edited the Routledge Handbook for Global Sport. Further, her articles in The Conversation have reached thousands of readers around the world.

Her work on menstruation and sport is timely, with Dr. Zipp establishing herself as a global expert on the topic. She has partnered with the Women Win Foundation, the National Organisation of Women in Sport, Physical Activity and Recreation (NOWSPAR) in Zambia and Kalitasha, Ltd. to research menstrual health education and SFD in Zambia (publication pending). In February, she hosted a workshop on sport and menstruation, bringing together non-governmental organizations, sport institutes and researchers. Presenters shared their ground-breaking work on SFD and menstruation in India, Zambia and Nepal.

She has contributed her expertise to a variety of groups and projects, including; the Wellcome Trust, UK Menstruation Research Network, International Working Group on Women in Sport, GETZ project, UK Period Poverty Taskforce and the Big Tent Festival.

Dr. Zipp is a Lecturer at the University of Stirling, the UK’s Sport University of the Year 2020.  She earned her PhD in 2017 in international Development Studies (Erasmus University, Netherlands) and holds degrees in sport administration (Virginia Commonwealth University, USA) and anthropology/archaeology (Washington and Lee University, USA). She has lived in the United States, Netherlands and the United Kingdom and lectured in Singapore, Japan and Norway. Dr. Zipp lives in Scotland with her husband, two children, a puppy and a cat.

Evaluation Process

The evaluation process was overseen by the JSFD Early Career Scholar Award Committee. At least two committee members reviewed each nomination and all committee members evaluated nominations considered on the short list of finalists. Any member of the award committee who declared a conflict of interest with a particular candidate was excluded from providing an evaluation for that candidate, and other committee members or additional evaluations were utilized to undertake the review process.

Early Career Scholar Award Committee

Cora Burnett, Award Committee Chair, University of Johannesburg
Ollie Dudfield, Commonwealth Secretariat
Iain Lindsey, Durham University
Marielle Schweickart, Women Win
Chiaki Okada, Osaka University

Additional Evaluators

Nico Schulenkorf, University of Technology Sydney
Emma Sherry, Swinburne University
Eli Wolff, Brown University

To learn more about the award or find out if you qualify for future nomination, please visit the JSFD Early Career Scholar Award page.