Emma Kavanagh

Dr Emma Kavanagh

  • Associate Professor in Sport Psychology and Safe Sport
  • Dorset House D226, Talbot Campus, Fern Barrow, Poole, BH12 5BB
UN SDGs:
Back to top

Biography

Dr. Emma Kavanagh is an Associate Professor of Sport Psychology and Safe Sport and an HCPC-Registered Sport and Exercise Psychologist. Internationally renowned for her research on abuse in sport, particularly in online contexts, she is a leading voice in this field. With extensive experience in high-performance environments, she has prepared athletes and teams for major global competitions, including the Commonwealth, Olympic, and Paralympic Games.

In focus:

Dr Emma Kavanagh is an Associate Professor in Sports Psychology and Safe Sport, an HCPC Registered Sport and Exercise Psychologist (BASES SEPAR) and Chartered Sport and Exercise Scientist. Emma teaches across the sports degree programmes; her research interests are within the academic disciplines of psychology and sociology. Emma's work centres on critically examining abuse in online and face-to-face environments, understanding the duty of care and enhancing safeguarding in sporting spaces.

Emma is the current Chair of the British Association of Sport and Exercises (BASES) Integrity Advisory Group and has been a member of the BASES athlete protection task group responsible for the development of safeguarding workshops which aim to educate existing and trainee sport and exercise scientists on issues of athlete safeguarding in the United Kingdom...

more

Expertise related to UN Sustainable Development Goals

In 2015, UN member states agreed to 17 global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure prosperity for all. This person's work contributes towards the following SDGs:

Good health and well-being

"Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages"

more information

Gender equality

"Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls"

more information

Reduced inequalities

"Reduce inequality within and among countries"

more information

Journal Articles

Books

  • Woessner, M., Pankowiak, A., Kavanagh, E. and Vertommen, T., 2023. BOOK OF ABSTRACTS The International Research Network on Violence and Integrity in Sport (IRNOVIS) Research Symposium Safe sport research today: Where are we at?. Online: Online.

Chapters

  • Kavanagh, E., Adams, A., Picariello, M. and Sheppard-Marks, L., 2024. The adoption of an interactive and immersive installation to educate coaches on the topic of abuse in sport. Sports coaching education and innovative pedagogies: Approaches in higher education. Routledge.
  • Kavanagh, E. and Ansari, P., 2024. Safe Sport. In: Pedersen, P.M., ed. Encyclopedia of Sport Management. London: Edward Elgar Publishing, 820.
  • Kavanagh, E.J. and Parry, K.D., 2024. Online Violence and the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. In: Jackson, D., Bernstein, A., Butterworth, M., Cho, Y., Sarver Coombs, D., Devlin, M. and Vimieiro, A.C., eds. Olympic and Paralympic Analysis 2024: Mega events, media, and the politics of sport - Early reflections from leading academics. Poole, UK: The Centre for Comparative Politics and Media Research, Bournemouth University, 101.
  • Kavanagh, E. and Ansari, P., 2024. Safe sport. Encyclopedia of Sport Management, Second Edition. 822-823.
  • Jaquelyn, O., Litchfield, C. and Kavanagh, E., 2023. Speaking up: a feminist analysis of the possibility of cultural change in women’s artistic gymnastics in Australia and England. In: Bridges, D., Lewis, C., Wulff, E., Litchfield, C. and Bamberry, L., eds. Gender, Feminist and Queer Studies Power, Privilege and Inequality in a Time of Neoliberal Conservatism. Routledge.
  • Kavanagh, E. and Gennings, E., 2023. Athlete Welfare. The Routledge Encyclopaedia of Sport Studies. London: Routledge.
  • Kavanagh, E., Litchfield, C. and Osborne, J., 2022. Social media, digital technology and athlete abuse. Research in the Sociology of Sport. 185-204.
  • Kavanagh, E. and Rhind, D., 2022. Safeguarding in Physiological Testing. In: Davison, R., Smith, P., Hopker, J., Price, M.J., Hettinga, F., Tew, G. and Bottoms, L., eds. Sport and Exercise Physiology Testing Guidelines: Volume I - Sport Testing The British Association of Sport and Exercise Sciences Guide. Routledge.
  • Kavanagh, E. and Rhind, D., 2022. Safeguarding in physiological testing. Sport and Exercise Physiology Testing Guidelines: Volume II - Exercise and Clinical Testing: The British Association of Sport and Exercise Sciences Guide. 26-29.
  • Kavanagh, E. and Parry, K.D., 2021. Tokyo 2020: athlete welfare and coping with new anxieties. In: Jackson, D., Bernstein, A., Butterworth, M., Cho, Y., Sarver Coombs, D., Devlin, M. and Onwumechili, C., eds. Olympic and Paralympic Analysis 2020: Mega events, media, and the politics of sport: Early reflections from leading academics. Bournemouth University: The Centre for Comparative Politics and Media Research, 74-75.
  • Kavanagh, E., Rhind, D. and Gordon-Thomson, G., 2021. Duties of care and welfare practices. Stress, Well-Being, and Performance in Sport. 313-331.
  • Osborne, J., Kavanagh, E. and Litchfield, C., 2021. Freedom for Expression or a Space of Oppression? Social Media and the Female @thlete. The Professionalisation of Women's Sport: Issues and Debates. 157-172.
  • Kavanagh, E., Litchfield, C. and Osborne, J., 2020. 19 Virtual technologies as tools of maltreatment: Safeguarding in digital spaces. Routledge Handbook of Athlete Welfare. 221-230.
  • Kavanagh, E., Litchfield, C. and Osborne, J., 2020. Virtual technologies as tools of maltreatment: safeguarding in digital spaces. In: Lang, M., ed. The Routledge Handbook of Athlete Welfare. Routledge.
  • Grenville-Cleave, B., Brady, A. and Kavanagh, E., 2018. POSITIVE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELATIONSHIPS IN SPORT AND PHYSICAL ACTIVITY. In: Brady, A. and Grenville-Cleave, B., eds. Positive Psychology in Sport and Physical Activity An Introduction. Routledge, 140-152.
  • Kavanagh, E. and Jones, I., 2016. Understanding cyber-enabled abuse in sport. Digital Leisure Cultures: Critical Perspectives. 120-134.
  • Kavanagh, E. and Jones, I., 2014. #cyberviolence: Developing a typology for understanding virtual maltreatment in sport. In: Rhind, D. and Brackenridge, C., eds. Researching and Enhancing Athlete Wellbeing. London: Brunel University Press, 34-43.
  • Kavanagh, E. and Brady, A.J., 2014. A framework for understanding humanisation and dehumanisation in sport. In: Rhind, D. and Brackenridge, C., eds. Researching and enhancing athlete welfare. London: Brunel University Press, 22-26.

Conferences

  • Kavanagh, E. and Adams, A., 2022. Experiencing the felt difficulty of sport coaching violence. Evidence and reflections from the arts-informed practitioner education event, ways of seeing sport coaching violence. In: IRNOVIS & SIMS Chair: International Perspectives on Violence in Sport Research 13-15 June 2022 University Laval, Quebec, Canada.
  • Kavanagh, E., 2021. Virtual Technology as Tools of Athlete Maltreatment: safeguarding in online spaces. In: Invited presentation for the Research Chair in Security and Integrity in Sport at Laval University, Quebec, Canada. 16 June 2021 Online.
  • Kavanagh, E., 2021. (Re)Presenting participant voices: Reflections on researching abuse in high performance sport (Invited Keynote Presentation). In: QRSEsoc online conference 8-9 April 2021 Online.
  • Kavanagh, E. and Brady, A., 2021. Evolving perspectives of care and welfare in coaching (Invited Keynote Presentation). In: UK Coaching, Performance Foundation Virtual Conference 3-4 March 2021 Online.
  • Mosley, E., Duncan, S., Jones, K., Herklots, H., Kavanagh, E. and Laborde, S., 2021. Psychoeducation and breathing training for stress reduction in student athletes. INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF SPORT AND EXERCISE PSYCHOLOGY, 19, S62.
  • Kavanagh, E., 2020. Faster, Higher, Stronger Safety, Welfare and Protection: the role of the sport psychologist in keeping people safe in sporting spaces. (Invited Keynote presentation). In: British Psychological Society Division of Sport and Exercise Psychology 16 December 2020-17 June 2021 Online.
  • Hansen, M., Parry, K.D., Kavanagh, E. and Anderson, E., 2019. “God created Adam and Eve not Adam and Steve” – An analysis of online responses to the EPL’s support of Rainbow Laces. In: Fourth annual interdisciplinary Sport and Discrimination Conference 4 September 2019 Southampton Solent University, Southampton, England.
  • Kavanagh, E., 2019. Symposium Faster, Stronger, Higher, But at What Cost? Safeguarding Athletes from Psychological Violence in Sport: The Scope of Virtual Psychological Violence in Sport. In: FEPSAC 15-21 July 2019 Munster.
  • Litchfield, C. and Kavanagh, E., 2019. Twitter, Team GB and the Australian Olympic Team: representations of gender in social media spaces. Sport in Society, 22 (7), 1148-1164.
  • Storr, R., Parry, K. and Kavanagh, E., 2018. '"We are a sport for all Australian's" : exploring the non-performativity of institutional speech acts around LGBTI+ diversity in Australian sporting organisations'. In: European Association for Sociology of Sport. Conference 23 May-26 August 2018 Bordeaux, France.
  • Adams, A. and Kavanagh, E., 2017. Masculinities in a youth football context: Exploring attitudes toward gay peers among adolescent boys in an English professional football (soccer) academy. In: 13th Conference of the European Sociological Association 29 August-1 September 2017 Athens, Greece.
  • Kavanagh, E., Litchfield, C., Jones, I. and Osborne, J., 2017. Virtual Maltreatment in sport: Sexualisation, racism, abuse and social media. In: Qualitative Reseach in Sport and Exercise 1-3 September 2016 Chichester University.
  • Osborne, J., Litchfield, C., Kavanagh, E. and Jones, I., 2017. Sporting women and social media: Sexualisation, misogyny and abuse in online spaces. In: Australian Society for Sports History 3 July-6 June 2017 Sydney, Australia.
  • Kavanagh, E., 2017. The impact of maltreatment on high performance athletes. The side effects of elite sport symposium. In: European Federation of Sport Psychology, FEPSAC 14-19 July 2015 Bern, Switzerland.
  • Kavanagh, E., 2017. Narratives of abuse: Reflections on collecting and dealing with sensitive data in sport. In: Qualitative Research in Sport and Exercise 1-3 September 2016 Chichester University.
  • Mosley, E., Laborde, S. and Kavanagh, E., 2016. Preliminary results of the contribution of coping related variables and vagal tone on dart throwing performance under pressure. In: British of Sport and Exercise Science 28-30 November 2016 Nottingham, England. Journal of sports sciences, 34 (Supp 1), 10-11 Taylor & Francis.
  • Kavanagh, E., Knowles, Z., Brady, A., Rhind, D., Gervis, M., Miles, A. and Davison, R., 2016. BASES expert statement on safeguarding in the sport and exercise sciences. In: British Association of Sport and Exercise Sciences 28-30 November 2016 Nottingham. Journal of sports sciences, 34 (Sup 1), 38-39 Taylor & Francis.
  • Kavanagh, E. and Adams, A., 2015. The cult of high performance sport, maltreatment and human rights. In: Leisure Studies Association 7-9 July 2015 Bournemouth University.
  • Adams, A. and Kavanagh, E., 2014. Are high performance athletes human beings? Rights, responsibilities and social justice. In: Leisure Studies Association (Conference) 7-9 July 2014 University of the West of Scotland.
  • Adams, A. and Kavanagh, E., 2014. A step too far? The politics of the rights and responsibilities of performance athletes. In: Political Studies Association, Sport and Politics Group, 21-22 February 2014 Manchester.
  • Jones, I. and Kavanagh, E., 2014. Its Just Megabantz, Innit? LOL: Justifying Virtual Maltreatment in Sport. In: Leisure Studies Association 7-9 July 2014 University of the West of Scotland.
  • Brady, A.J. and Kavanagh, E., 2013. Humanization as framework for achieving athlete wellbeing. In: Brunel International Research Network for Athlete Wellbeing, International Symposium 6-7 November 2013 Brunel University, West London.
  • Kavanagh, E. and Brady, A.J., 2013. Humanization in High Performance Sport: Introducing a values based framework for coaches and practitioners. In: International Council for Coaching Excellence 11-13 September 2013 Durban, South Africa.
  • Kavanagh, E. and Brady, A.J., 2013. Humanization in high performance sport: Introducing a value-based framework to explore athletes’ experience. In: British Philosophy of Sport Association 8-9 April 2013 University of Gloucestershire.
  • Kavanagh, E. and Jones, I., 2013. #cyberviolence: Developing a typology for understanding virtual maltreatment in sport. In: Brunel International Research Network for Athlete Welfare 6 November 2013 Brunel University.
  • Brady, A. and Kavanagh, E., 2012. Humanization in high performance sport. In: International Convention on Science, Education and Medicine in Sport 19-23 July 2012 Glasgow.
  • Wilding, A. and Kavanagh, E., 2012. Atlantic Calling; the highs and lows of Atlantic rowing, A case study approach. Presented as part of Risky Business: Themes Relating to Participation in High Risk Sports syposium. In: British Psychological Society Annual Conference 18 April-20 January 2012 London.
  • Gatzidis, C., Parry, K.D., Kavanagh, E., Wilding, A. and Gibson, D., 2009. Towards the Development of an Interactive 3D Coach Training Serious Game. In: IEEE First International Conference Games and Virtual Worlds for Serious Applications. , 186-189.
  • Gatzidis, C., Parry, K., Kavanagh, E., Wilding, A. and Gibson, D., 2009. Towards the Development of an Interactive 3D Coach Training Serious Game. VS-GAMES, 186-189 IEEE Computer Society.
  • Kavanagh, E.J., 2006. The Effect of Motivational Highlight DVDs on State Self‐Confidence in Elite Female Hockey Players. In: Annual Conference of the British Association of Sport and Exercise Sciences 2007 12-14 September 2006 Bath University.

Reports

  • Parry, K.D., Kavanagh, E., Lock, D. and Muller, J., 2021. Diversity and Inclusion within the Vitality Netball Superleague: A report prepared for the Netball Players’ Association. Bournemouth: Bournemouth University.

Internet Publications

Theses

Others

PhD Students

  • Carly Lamont. Identity and change in academic life

Profile of Teaching UG

  • Safe Sport; Applied Sport and Exercise Psychology; Dissertation

Qualifications

  • PGCE in Teaching and Learning in Higher Education (2009)
  • MSc in Sports Science (Sport Psychology) (Brunel University, 2006)

Memberships

  • British Association of Sport and Exercise Sciences, Member,