Lee Bush, associate professor in the School of Communications, presented her paper “Creating Our Own Lineup: Identities and Shared Cultural Norms of Surfing Women in a U.S. East Coast Community,” at the Fall 2013 Conference of the International Organization of Social Sciences and Behavioral Research.
The conference was held in New Orleans Oct. 14 and 15.
Bush’s paper is the result of a multi-year ethnographic study of women who surf on the East Coast of the U.S. Using the Communication Theory of Identity as a framework, the study examines how surfing women construct, develop, and enact their identities in a traditionally male-oriented lifestyle sport. The study found that women share many of the identities of the larger surfing culture, while also carving out spaces in which to develop and enact their own cultural norms.
The IOSSBR is an international society of scholars and practitioners who share research and ideas across multiple disciplines including communication, education, psychology, sociology, anthropology and women’s studies.