Gems gives talks, publishes book and article about sports history, society and identity

Gerald Gems, North Central College professor of health and physical education, published an article, titled “Fairy Tales? Marion Jones, C.J. Hunter and the Framing of Doping in American Newspapers,” in Sport in Society, November 2013. The article was coauthored with Gertrud Pfister of the University of Copenhagen.

The article deals with the images, metaphors and narratives in the media coverage of doping in the United States. It presents a case study with a focus on Marion Jones, the most celebrated track athlete of the turn of the millennium, her husband C.J. Hunter, a shot put world champion convicted of doping, and the 2000 Olympic Games.

In December, Gems’ book, titled “Sport and the Shaping of Italian American Identity,” was published by Syracuse University Press. He also gave two presentations with Pfister in Sweden. The first was titled “The Circus as the Cradle of Women’s Sport” at Malmö University on Dec. 12 and the second was titled “Transgressing Taboos and Gaining Acceptance: Women in the World of Boxing” at the University of Gothenburg on Dec. 14.

Gems has been a member of North Central College’s faculty since 1988. He earned his B.A. from Northeastern Illinois University, his M.S. from the University of Arizona and his Ph.D. from the University of Maryland.