Staff profile

Stacey is Theme Leader for the Department of Sport and Exercise Sciences. She joined Durham University in 2013. She is especially interested in issues of gender, sport and inequality and is a leading figure in the area of women sports fans. Women sports fans have been largely ignored in existing studies but Stacey’s research has broken new ground by addressing these shortcomings. She is author of The Feminization of Sports Fandom. Stacey’s research interests are interdisciplinary, combining sociology, history, sport, gender studies and leisure studies.

Stacey is currently working on an ongoing AHRC project on women sports fans (£244k). This project has two main programmes of work. Firstly, it focuses on the experiences of women football fans in Britain from the 1950s to the present day, using the men’s Newcastle United Football Club as a case study. The second part is focused upon international women’s football. This is investigating women’s fandom as well as media coverage of women’s football in a ‘new age’ of women’ sport. Stacey’s research is aligned to the Sporting Lives Theme Group.

Stacey has been awarded grants from a range of funders, including the ESRC, the AHRC, the NERC and the Racing Foundation. She is regularly invited to present at national and international events. She has received invitations from key policy makers to discuss her research (e.g. UEFA, Public Health England) and her research on women football fans has been used to inform policy papers for the DCMS and the Sports Grounds Safety Authority. Stacey is committed to the public dissemination of her research and her work regularly features in the national and international media (e.g. Euronews, L’Equipe, BBC, Sky Sports News, the i).

PhD Supervision

Stacey welcomes applications from potential PhD students in the area of gender, sport and inequalities.

• Healthy Communities

Authored book

• Pope, S. (2017). The Feminization of Sports Fandom: A Sociological Study. Routledge.

Book review

• Pope, S. (2017). English National Identity and Football Fan Culture, Who Are Ya? Soccer & Society 18(1): 154-158.

Chapter in book

• Jones, K., Pope, S. & Toffoletti, K. (2022). Women Sports Fans. In Routledge Handbook of Sports Fans. Sarver Coombs, Danielle & Osborne, Anne C. London: Routledge.
• Petty, K., & Pope, S. (2022). A New Age for Media Coverage of Women's Sport? An Analysis of English Media Coverage of the 2015 FIFA Women's World Cup. In Women's Football in a Global, Professional Era. A. Culvin, & A. Bowes. Professional Era. Emerald Publishing.
• Pope, S. (2018). 'Who Could Name an England Women’s Footballer?': Female Fans of Men’s Football and their Views of Women’s Football in England. In Female Football Players and Fans: Intruding into a Man’s World. Pfister, G. & Pope, S. Palgrave MacMillan.
• Pope, S. & Pfister, G. (2018). Introduction. In Female Football Players and Fans: Intruding into a Man’s World. Pfister, G. & Pope, S. Palgrave MacMillan.
• Pope, S. & Williams, J. (2018). A Socio-Historical Account of Female Experiences of Football’s Golden Age in England. In Female Football Players and Fans: Intruding into a Man’s World. Pfister, G. & Pope, S. Palgrave MacMillan.
• Pope, S. (2016). Female Fans of Men's Football. In Routledge Handbook of Football Studies. Hughson, J., Maguire, J., Moore, K. & Spaaij, R. Routledge.
• Pope, S. (2014). Female Football Fans and Gender Performance. In Routledge Handbook of Sport, Gender and Sexuality. Anderson, E. & Hargreaves, J. Routledge. 245-253.
• Harvey, S., Pope, S., Fletcher, I. & Kerner, C. (2014). Jenny. 13-year-old female, early maturing and talented, physiology, sociology, psychology, pedagogy. In Pedagogical Cases in Physical Education and Youth Sport. Armour, K. Routledge. 144-155.
• Pope, S. (2012). The Meaning of Sport in the Lives of ‘Hot’ and ‘Cool’ Female Fans of Football and Rugby Union. In Sports and Its Female Fans. Toffoletti, K. & Mewett, P. Routledge: London. 135-165.

Edited book

• Pfister, G. & Pope, S. (2018). Female Football Players and Fans: Intruding into a Man’s World. Palgrave MacMillan.

Journal Article

• Bryan, Amée, Pope, Stacey & Rankin-Wright, Alexandra J. (Published). On the Periphery: Examining Women’s Exclusion from Core Leadership Roles in the “Extremely Gendered” Organization of Men’s Club Football in England. Gender & Society 35(6): 940-970.
• Williams, John, Pope, Stacey & Cleland, Jamie (2023). ‘Genuinely in love with the game’ football fan experiences and perceptions of women’s football in England. Sport in Society 26(2): 285-301.
• Pope, Stacey & Allison, Rachel (2022). Women’s football fandom and growing the ‘Beautiful’ game. Science and Medicine in Football 6(5): 547-548.
• Clarkson, Beth G., Parry, Keith D., Culvin, Alex & Pope, Stacey (2022). An institutional analysis of gender (in)equalities, covid-19 and governance of elite women’s football in Australia, England and the USA. Sport, Business and Management: An International Journal 12(4): 459-478.
• Pope, Stacey, Williams, John & Cleland, Jamie (2022). Men’s Football Fandom and the Performance of Progressive and Misogynistic Masculinities in a ‘New Age’ of UK Women’s Sport. Sociology 56(4): 730-748.
• Gemar, A. & Pope, S. (2022). Women's consumption of men's professional sport in Canada: Evidence of the ‘feminization’ of sports fandom and women as omnivorous sports consumers? International Review for the Sociology of Sport 57(4): 552-574.
• Culvin, A., Bowes, A., Carrick, S. & Pope, S. (2022). The Price of Success: Equal Pay and the US Women’s National Soccer Team. Soccer & Society 23(8): 920-931.
• Allison, Rachel & Pope, Stacey (2022). Becoming Fans: Socialization and Motivations of Fans of the England and U.S. Women’s National Football Teams. Sociology of Sport Journal 39(3): 287–297.
• Clarkson, Beth G., Culvin, Alex, Pope, Stacey & Parry, Keith D. (2022). Covid-19: Reflections on threat and uncertainty for the future of elite women’s football in England. Managing Sport and Leisure 27(1-2): 50-61.
• Hockin-Boyers, H., Pope, S. & Jamie, K. (2021). Digital Pruning: Agency and Social Media Use as a Personal Political Project Among Female Weightlifters in Recovery from Eating Disorders. New Media & Society 23(8): 2345-2366.
• Hockin-Boyers, H., Pope, S. & Jamie, K (2020). #gainingweightiscool: The use of transformation photos on Instagram among female weightlifters in recovery from eating disorders. Qualitative Research in Sport, Exercise and Health 13(1): 94-112.
• Hockin-Boyers, H., Jamie, K. & Pope, S. (2020). Moving Beyond the Image: Theorising 'Extreme' Female Bodies. Women's Studies International Forum 83: 102416.
• Cleland, Jamie, Pope, Stacey & Williams, John (2020). ‘I do worry that football will become over-feminized’ ambiguities in fan reflections on the gender order in men’s professional football in the United Kingdom. Sociology of Sport Journal 37(4): 366-375.
• Petty, Kate & Pope, Stacey (2019). A New Age for Media Coverage of Women’s Sport? An Analysis of English Media Coverage of the 2015 FIFA Women’s World Cup. Sociology 53(3): 486-502.
• Jung, H., Pope, S. & Kirk, D. (2016). Policy for Physical Education and School Sport in England, 2003-2010: Vested Interests and Dominant Discourses. Physical Education and Sport Pedagogy 21(5): 501-516.
• Pope, S. (2016). Female fan experiences and interpretations of the 1958 Munich air disaster, the 1966 World Cup finals and the rise of footballers as sexualised national celebrities. International Review for the Sociology of Sport 51(7): 848-866.
• Pope, S. (2015). 'It's Just Such a Class Thing': Rivalry and Class Distinction Between Female Fans of Men's Football and Rugby Union. Sociological Research Online 20(2): 11.
• Pope, S. (2014). 'There are Some Daft People Out There!': exploring female sport and media fandoms. Sport in Society 17(2): 254-269.
• Pope, S. & Kirk, D. (2014). The Role of Physical Education and Other Formative Experiences of Three Generations of Female Football Fans. Sport, Education and Society 19(2): 223-240.
• Pope, S. (2013). “The Love of My Life” The Meaning and Importance of Sport for Female Fans. Journal of Sport & Social Issues 37(2): 176–195.
• Pope, S. & Williams, J. (2011). White Shoes to a Football Match!: Female Experiences of Football's Golden Age in England. Transformative Works and Cultures 6.
• Pope, S. (2011). Like Pulling down Durham Cathedral and Building a Brothel. International Review for the Sociology of Sport 46(4): 471-487.
• Pope, S. & Williams, J. (2011). Beyond Irrationality and the Ultras: Some Notes on Female English Rugby Union Fans and the 'Feminised' Sports Crowd. Leisure Studies 30(3): 293-308.
• Pope, S. (2008). Out in the Field. Sociology Review 17(4).

Newspaper/Magazine Article

• Pope, S. (2017). Sing When You’re Women: Why It’s Time to Take Female Sports Fans Seriously. The Conversation