Dear Auld Reekie Roller Girls,

As you might already know, I am just starting my Sociology PhD – and I’m doing it on Roller Derby…

What?
I’m doing PhD research on Roller Derby, specifically how skaters “do gender”. This means how we act and what we say in relation to typical ideas about what men and women should be like. So, for example one stereotypical idea about women is that we shouldn’t be aggressive or violent. But Roller Derby not only lets us be these things but also encourages and celebrates our strength and power.

I think Roller Derby is amazingly interesting because it combines a whole range of things stereotypically understood to be “things that men do” (like play an aggressive sport and organise it ourselves!) with “things that women do” (like look after each other, care about each other, and perhaps sometimes wear sparkly shorts…).

So in my PhD I want to explore what this means, both to us, the people that play Roller Derby, and what it means in relation to sociological theories about women and sport, which from what I’ve learnt so far don’t seem to be particularly sophisticated or good!

How?
I am hoping, if everyone’s ok with it, to do an “ethnographic case study” of ARRG.

This would involve me coming to practices and meetings and writing about what happens, what we do and what we say. Being a massive geek I will then go through everything and look for things that relate to gender, things that relate to ideas about men and women, and try and write a thesis and possibly some journal articles about it! (My geek dream is to write a book about Roller Derby and gender…)

If anyone would prefer to NOT be included in this part of the project – or if you have any questions or comments - then please just email me ([email protected]). Being involved in the project is completely voluntary and you can decide not to be involved at any time.

I’d also like to invite skaters for “interviews” about your experiences of Roller Derby, why you like it, what you dislike, and what you think about it. These can be done either individually or in small groups, and will involve snacks!

What else?
At the moment I am trying to work out everything I need to do! I hope to do a mini-pilot-study this October and November to practice doing fieldwork (otherwise known as coming to practice and making notes) and interviews.

Part of the pilot study will also involve working out whether or not to include people’s real names. Usually in social research everyone who participates is given a pseudonym so they can’t be identified. But derby names make this complicated – as does the fact that it will probably be pretty obvious that the league is in Edinburgh. So I guess I need to work out how everyone feels about that and what approach everyone would prefer.

All information will be stored securely and in confidentiality, I won’t publish anything that could identify individuals or the league without express permission. I also hope to be able to give feedback on what I’m doing – maybe via the forum. So if anyone’s interested you can find out what I’m doing. And if you’re not interested then you just don’t have to look!

I’ve made up some information leaflets and a poster which go over everything in this forum post and will be giving out leaflets at practices over the next few weeks – if you’d like one and haven’t got one then come grab me.

I am happy to answer any and all questions any time! Private message me for my phone number or you can email me or catch me at practice. THANK YOU for reading this!

Aw Bentos I LOVE this! You clever scone! xxx

I think you should include a chapter about roller derby meeting snacks and gender relevance

i really this thread

This is an amazingly wicked Phd to do!!!

Im studying psychology (but somehow feel that my mind thinks more sociologically!!!) and I will find this VERY interesting.

I really like that your doing it too! xxx

What an amazing idea!
This is the type of thing that would get me back to the uni benches again...

Thanks guys! I am excited to do it because I am basically a dork, sociology is my second favourite thing to do after derby.

I am trying to write up notes about practice last night but I can't remember anything except 'we played some roller derby' ahhh.

I really appreciate being able to do this with ARRG!

I really admire what you're doing, Sociology was my undergrad degree and Roller Derby is basically a beautiful sociological mine filed! It's pretty much one of the only things which has got my brian thinking thinking that way again since graduating.

Up until a couple of months ago I had an admin job for the department of Physical Education, sport and Leisure Studies, at Edinburgh Uni and strted up conversations about roller derby with a few members of staff I thought would be interested but was really disapointed by the negitive and dismissive responses I got. The first was a lecturer in Sports Management with a background/emphasis in feminism so I thought she'd be interested in it from several angles inc the grass roots side, but she out right dismissed it as "ridiculous false empowerment" (?!?!). The second was a lecturer again in Sports management but his background is Sociology and he really disapointed me by only looking at the 'sexual' side of the outfits. He did mutter something about safety away from the imediate male gaze but both cases really did highlight the, at times, narrow boundaries of what is considered worthy topics of academic interest. Needless to say I then bored them both senseless about the merits of Derby, the changes it's gone thorugh since the staged days in the US and of course passed out bout flyers! Realistically I didn't really expect them to be fully clued up but I had hoped it would be open to an intellegent chat about something new and exciting happening within their fields of interest.

Bah - sorry for the excessively long rant! I guess I'm trying to say that what you are doing is great as there is blatently a gap in academic exploration and you must be coming up against it in a way largely treading new ground.

I love that you're doing this Benny!!!! you are very clever!