Professor of Kinesiology Honored for Service to Sports History

Cal State East Bay Kinesiology Professor Rita Liberti recently received the Guy Lewis Recognition Award for Contributions to the Field of Sport History. The author was honored last month at the North American Society for Sport History’s Annual Convention in Washington, D.C. NASSH recognized Liberti’s efforts to take her work in social justice in sport beyond the walls of academia. 

“Dr. Liberti's accomplishments are legendary,” said Paul Carpenter, Cal State East Bay chair of the Department of Kinesiology. “Her record of achievement as a teacher, scholar, and in serving the campus and her profession is second to none. Her tireless advocacy work around social justice and equity through and in sport has made an enduring and indelible impact.”

Liberti is a sport historian who focuses on 20th-century women's sport, with a particular interest in female students at historically Black colleges and universities in the 1930s. She is also the founding director of the Center for Sport & Social Justice on the Cal State East Bay campus.

“Tellingly, Rita has complemented her scholarship with a great deal of service at both her home institution and in professional organizations that has contributed significantly to the growth and increased influence of sport history as an academic discipline,” said Dr. David Wiggins, NASSH’s past-president. “The NASSH Distinguished Lectures and Honor Awards Committee, which I chaired, was especially impressed, for instance, by her six-year position as Director of the Center for Sport & Social Justice at California State University, East Bay and level of service to both NASSH and the North American Society for Sport Sociology. In all, selecting Rita Liberti for the Guy Lewis Award for Contributions to Sport History was a very easy choice considering all that she has done for the field. It was a pleasure to honor her.”

NASSH is the world's largest academic organization devoted to studying sport history. The purpose of the organization is to promote, stimulate and encourage the study of the history of sport; to support, stimulate and encourage scholarly writing and research related to the history of sport; and to cooperate with local, national and international organizations having the same purpose.

“One thing I've been thinking about since receiving the award is how fortunate I've been to teach sport history at East Bay for 25 years — and specifically women's sport history for the past several years,” said Liberti. “It's not just getting the chance to teach in my area of expertise, but to be in the classroom with our students. They bring global, diverse perspectives to the classroom. You can't manufacture that kind of richness.” 

Liberti is currently working on more research and writing projects, including one that looks at the Black Women's Sports Foundation and early 20th-century basketball among working-class women who labored in the mills/factories across Massachusetts. 

“It continues a line of research that I started decades ago — to shed light on the histories that don't often get told,” said Liberti. “So many remarkable stories that have plenty to offer us about the past and the present.”