Doctoral Student Michael Friedman Awarded Barbara Brown Outstanding Student Paper Award

Michael Friedman, a Ph.D. candidate in the Kinesiology department, was awarded the prestigious Barbara Brown Outstanding Student Paper Award. He is the first Maryland student to win this honor, which is awarded annually by the North American Society for the Sociology of Sport (NASSS).

The Healthy Turtle talked with Michael about his now-successfully defended dissertation and what this award means to him:

The Healthy Turtle: What were the major points of your paper? What was the most interesting part of it to you?

Michael Friedman: The paper is part of my dissertation, "The Transparency of Democracy: A Lefebvrean Analysis of Washington's Nationals Park," that I successfully defended on Monday, November 10. In the paper, I examine the ways in which the stadium's design contradicts the ideas of democracy, which are associated with the image of Washington and that the architects used as their inspiration.

This contradiction between the image and practice of democracy is similar to the contradiction in Washington as, despite its democratic image, residents lack voting rights. I would consider this parallel between the inclusionary images and exclusionary practices in the stadium and Washington to be the paper's most interesting part.

HT: What does winning this award mean to you?

Friedman: This award is validation of my growth as a scholar and a sign of the rising prominence of the University of Maryland and Physical Cultural Studies at NASSS. This year, the PCS program at Maryland was extremely well represented at NASSS with 10 students, 3 professors, and 3 alumni attending. Between us, we presented 9 papers (including 1 by Ryan King-White in a spotlight session), organized or presided in 4 sessions, and saw Callie Bates elected as Graduate Student Representative to the NASSS Board of Directors.

Congratulations, Michael!