Profile summary
My doctoral research focuses on the embodied experiences of women within fitness cultures. Methodologically, ethnography is utilised in conjunction with feminist phenomenology to illustrate the lived experiences of the female exercisers. Additionally, a critical self-reflexive approach is also used. With the utilisation of these methods, corporeal and 'fleshy' aspects are illuminated with regards to how myself, and other women make sense of the world through our living, breathing and sensing bodies.
In addition to my doctoral research, I have been awarded a Postgraduate Certificate in Academic Practice (PGCAP), and I am also a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (FHEA). I contribute towards teaching in the following areas:
- Level 4 - Year 0 Scientific Skills in Sport and Exercise 1
- Level 4 - Year 0 Scientific Skills in Sport and Exercise 2
- Level 4 - Year 0 Psychological and Sociological Aspects of Sport and Exercise (Module Lead)
- Level 4 - Orientation to Higher Education
- Level 4 - Introduction to Sport, Culture and Society
- Level 5 - Sporting Identities and Lifestyles
- Level 5 - Research Methods in Sport and Exercise
- Level 6 - Individual & Applied Research Project (Supervisor)
- Level 6 - Rethinking Sport, Health and Body Cultures
I am also a member, and project coordinator and webpage manager of the Sport and Body Cultures (SBC) research group at Canterbury Christ Church University.
For more information regarding my research, see my updates on my twitter profile: @amy_clark08 .
SBC updates are also available on twitter too: @CCCuni_SBC .
Publications
Clark, A. (2018) ‘I found that joking back actually made me not on edge, and I didn’t feel threatened’: Women’s embodied experiences of sexist humour (banter) in a UK gym’, International Journal of Gender and Women’s Studies, 6(1), pp. 15-29. URL: http://ijgws.com/journals/ijgws/Vol_6_No_1_June_2018/2.pdf
Clark, A. (2018) ‘Exploring Women’s Embodied Experiences of ‘the gaze’ in a Mix-Gendered UK Gym’, Societies, 8(2), p.1-19. doi: 10.3390/soc8010002
Clark, A. (2016) ‘An investigation into the impact of Self Organised Learning Environment (SOLE) on student engagement in Higher Education’, Online Education Research Journal, 1(4), Retrieved from www.oerj.org.
Conference presentation
Clark, A. (2018) ‘I found that joking back actually made me not on edge, and I didn’t feel threatened’: Women’s embodied experiences of sexist humour in a UK gym. ISSA World Congress of the Sociology of Sport. Lausanne, Switzerland.
Clark, A. (2017) ‘If you put on any more weight, I’ll dump you’: Women’s Early Influences and Reasons for Exercise Participation. Gender, Physical Education and Active Lifestyles: Researching Young People’s Experiences. Leeds, UK.
Clark, A. (2017) 'I do think women have a good instinct on stares': Exploring women's embodied experiences of 'the gaze' in fitness cultures'. 8th International Conference on Sport and Society. London, UK.
Clark, A.(2017) 'I do think women have a good instinct on stares': Exploring women's embodied experiences of 'the gaze' in fitness cultures'. 3rd International Conference on Women's Studies. Leeds, UK.
Clark, A. (2016) Exploring women's embodied pleasures in fitness cultures. Exploring Embodied Research in Sport and Movement Cultures Symposium. Canterbury, UK.
Clark , A. (2016). ‘You can’t move properly and you have to roll off the toilet because you can’t actually use your thighs, and you have to go down the stairs on your backside … you can’t describe that feeling’: Exploring women’s embodied experiences in fitness cultures. ISSA World Congress of the Sociology of Sport. Budapest, Hungary.
Clark , A. (2015) Negotiating the spit and sawdust: Embodied femininities in gym spaces. ISSA World Congress of the Sociology of Sport. Paris, France.
Forthcoming book
James Brighton, Ian Wellard and Amy Clark have been commissioned by Routledge to write a book on Gym Bodies: Exploring Fitness Cultures . This is scheduled for publication in January 2018.
Embodied thought of the month