Jay Coakley

Jay Coakley is Professor Emeritus of Sociology at the University of Colorado in Colorado Springs. He received a PhD in sociology at the University of Notre Dame and has since taught and done research on play, games, and sports, among other topics in sociology. Dr Coakley has received many teaching, service, and professional awards, and is an internationally respected scholar, author, and journal editor. In 2004 the Citizenship Through Sport Alliance presented him with a national Citizenship Through Sport Award for his work to make sports and physical activities more inclusive. In 2007 the Institute for International Sport selected him as one of the 100 Most Influential Sports Educators, and the University of Chichester in West Sussex, England awarded him an Honorary Fellowship in recognition of his outstanding leadership in the sociology of sport. A former intercollegiate athlete, Coakley continues to use concepts, research, and theories in sociology to critically examine social phenomena and promote changes that will make social worlds more democratic and humane. He currently lives in Fort Collins, Colorado.

Elizabeth Pike

Elizabeth Pike is a senior lecturer at the University of Chichester where she is responsible for sociology of sport courses and research. She was awarded a PhD in the sociology of sport by Loughborough University and has since researched and published on risk, injury, ageing and corporeality in sports. She has delivered presentations critically evaluating these phenomena in universities and conferences throughout Africa, the Americas, Asia, Australasia, and Europe. Dr Pike is currently a member of the Executive Board of the International Sociology of Sport Association, and serves as the General Secretary of the association. She works as a reviewer for several journals and publishers, and is on the Editorial Board of the International Review for the Sociology of Sport. She lives in the City of Brighton and Hove, East Sussex.