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Theses and Dissertations

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Browsing Theses and Dissertations by Subject "activism"

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    The power of the player: embodied social activism of professional athletes
    (Colorado State University. Libraries, 2020) Schade, Kennedy J., author; Dunn, Thomas, advisor; Khrebtan-Hörhager, Julia, committee member; Cloud, Doug, committee member
    Designed to contribute to conversations about the political nature of sports, this thesis proposes a new type of rhetorical activism that is utilized by professional athletes. The figure of the athlete activist has a long history in United States sports culture of using their platform to speak to their fans and other audiences about social issues that occur in the lives of everyday citizens. By drawing on scholarship surrounding rhetoric, social activism, identity, and embodiment, this thesis directs explicit attention to the way that the human body functions rhetorically for professional athletes when practicing social activism. Extending Kevin Michael DeLuca's claim that the body is not inherently argumentative, I argue that given the inherent political nature of sports, the body of a professional athlete can be read as political even without intent of the athlete themselves and because of that, athletes are given opportunities to practice "embodied social activism." Representing an evolution of the athlete activist, I define embodied social activism as the way an athlete's marked body or lived experiences can be read as consequential contributions to discourses surrounding social issues. Analysis of the careers and activism of National Basketball Association (NBA) player Allen Iverson and National Football League (NFL) player Michael Bennett stands to show the ways that the athletic body can both function as argument itself and can be used as evidence to support more traditional means of social activism.