Ashley Brown

Position title: Assistant Professor & Allan H. Selig Chair in the History of Sport and Society

Email: abrown62@wisc.edu

Phone: 608.263.1641

Address:
Office: 5105 Mosse Humanities
Mailbox: 5011 Mosse Humanities
Office Hours: Virtually Tuesdays and Thursdays 5:40-6:40pm

Ashley Brown

Biography

I am a twentieth-century United States historian whose research and teaching focus on African American history, women’s history, and the history of sport. I believe that sport is intrinsic to American culture and history, carrying the potential to initiate critical discussions about race, gender, mass culture and media, and labor. I am particularly passionate about investigating the journeys of minority and female athletes in country club sports.  In February 2023, Oxford University Press will publish my first book, Serving Herself: The Life and Times of Althea Gibson, a comprehensive biography of the first African American to win titles at Wimbledon and the U.S. Nationals between 1956 and 1958.

Education

Ph.D., George Washington University
B.A., Mount Holyoke College

Books

Selected Publications

  • “’Uncomplimentary Things’: Tennis Player Althea Gibson, Sexism, Homophobia, and Anti-Queerness in the Black Media,” Journal of African American History, 106.2 (Spring 2021): 249-277.
  • “Swinging for the State Department: American Women Tennis Players in Diplomatic Goodwill Tours, 1941-1959,” Journal of Sport History, 42.3 (Fall 2015): 289-309.

Selected Awards

  • Nellie McKay Fellowship, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 2020-2021.
  • Fall Research Competition Award, Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research and Graduate Education, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 2020.
  • Visiting Fellowship for Post-Doctoral Scholars, James Weldon Johnson Institute for the Study of Race and Difference, Emory University, 2017-2018.
  • Research Associateship, Five College Women’s Studies Research Center, 2016-2017.
  • National Edward Alexander Bouchet Graduate Honor Society, 2016.
  • 30th Annual Graduate Student Essay Prize, North American Society for Sport History, 2015.
  • Presidential Merit Fellowship, George Washington University, 2010-2015.

History Courses

  • History 136 – Sport, Recreation, and Society
  • History 201 – The Historians Craft: Heroes and Amazons in Sports
  • History 221 – Explorations in American History: African Americans and Sports
  • History 500 – Reading Seminar: African American Migrations
  • History 500 – Reading Seminar: Biography in U.S. Sports History
  • History 600 – Advanced Seminar in History: History, Sport, and Film
  • History 901 – African American Women, Freedom, and Identity