Anna Posbergh, kinesiology PhD candidate at the University of Maryland School of Public Health, received a grant to explore the “science” of fair play and medicalized ideas of fairness in sports policy, particularly relating to transgender eligibility and gender-verification processes from the Olympics Studies Centre.
The grant will fund a month-long stay in Lausanne, Switzerland, during which Posbergh will pursue archival research at the Olympic Studies Centre.
PhD/early-career research grants from the Olympic Studies Centre are intended for PhD students who are engaged in social science and qualitative research on the Olympic movement. Posbergh’s previous research has explored an International Association of Athletics Federations regulation which discriminates against women with naturally high testosterone levels.
“Just because regulations exist does not mean that they are evidence-based, human-rights considered, or even ethical,” Posbergh wrote in the BMJ Opinion, alongside the University of Bath’s Dr. Sheree Bekker.
Her research has previously been published in the International Journal of Information, Diversity & Inclusion.
Posbergh will explore fairness in sports policy, especially as manifest in transgender regulations during her month at the Olympics Studies Centre. She will also attend a two-week research trip to the International Olympic Committee meetings in Monaco next month, thanks to a grant from the University of Maryland’s Department of Kinesiology.
Posbergh was one of only six individuals selected for the grant, out of 41 candidates. Her grant report will be added to 35,000 publications in the Olympic World Library.