Prof Kath Woodward

Professional biography

Fellow of the Learned Society of Wales

Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences

Research interests

My research focuses on theoretical explanations of social justice and the politics of everyday life and social and personal relations as experienced by embodied selves, for example within the field of sport, especially boxing. Empirical research in the field of sport and its embodied practices have led to my greater interest in feminist phenomenology, including Simone de Beauvoir’s theories of embodiment and her development of the concept of situations such as situated bodies and bodies as situations. I am currently writing a book on de Beauvoir, exploring the impact of these ideas in light of recent political shifts and transformations, for Routledge.

Sociopolitical changes have led me to explore some of the contradictions of binary logic in classificatory systems which have played such a prominent role in relation to gender in sport in recent years. Change, having been very slow, can be fast as well as contentious over recent time and temporality is also primary concern in my work. My book Sporting Times, written during the 2012 London Olympics, formed the basis for the Olympic Museum exhibition, Chasing Time, 2014-15 was devoted to time and temporalities, which are particularly pertinent to current debates within gender studies and research in gender and sexualities.

I have published widely in interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary fields and Social Sciences Social Sciences: The Big Issues, Routledge, 4th edition 2022, develops critical approaches to contemporary issues of inequality and social justice.  My most recent book, with Sophie Woodward is A Multidisciplinary Approach to Gender, for Edward Elgar, Autumn 2025 develops innovative approaches to making sense of gender through multidisciplinary conversations and connections.

Relationality and crossing boundaries are central to my research, whether temporal, spatial or between conventional categories, including gender, as well as between inner and social worlds as explored through psychosocial approaches.

I am chief editor of the online, open access Frontiers journal, Gender, Sex and Sexualities, which features a wide range of articles and reviews within interdisciplinary gender studies and sociology, as well as Research Topics, collections which include conversations between the sciences and social sciences, from a wide demographic of interdisciplinary scholars including the global south.

Woodward, K and Woodward, S (2025 forthcoming) A Multidisciplinaey Approach to Gender, Cheltenham, Edward Elgar

A repository of research publications and other research outputs can be viewed at The Open University's Open Research Online.

Teaching interests

I have worked on a wide range of social science and interdisciplinary modules at undergraduate and postgraduate level including many very popular interdisciplinary level 1 Introduction to the Social Sciences modules as well as masters' and research methods courses. have worked on Women's Studies, Cultural and Media Studies and Sociology modules. Recently, teaching has been through publication, for example contributions to textbooks, such as Introduction to Gender and Women’s Studies (6^th edition), I have supervised a large number of PhD students working on different aspects of gendered and diasporic identities, including diverse religious and spiritual attachments and embodied selves in the context of cultural transformations in the field of sport and embodiment. Most recently I have examined several  wonderful PhDs on challenges to binary gender in sport, from boxing to dancesport.

External collaborations

International Olympic Museum Lausanne. Curator of Chasing Time Exhibition

Learned Society Of Wales, scrutiny committee member