Froukje Smits
Froukje Smits started her career as a physical education teacher, after which she graduated with distinction for a master’s in (Sports) Educational Theory at Utrecht University. Since 2010, she has been working as a researcher on issues concerning the social impact of sport and exercise.
She is a senior researcher at the Research group Participation and Urban Development, where she coordinates the ‘Social impact of sport and exercise’ line of research. She is also a HU-network manager for the Sport & Society knowledge and innovation network. She is also working as an external PhD candidate at Utrecht University, on her dissertation 'U on Board’ - a study of youth sport.
Fields of expertise
- Sport and society
- Sports sociology
- Sports educational theory
Publications
- Understanding youth in sport A Foucauldian lens on power, discourse and knowledge in youth sports
- 'You don't realize what you see!': the institutional context of emotional abuse in elite youth sport.
- We must not engage in the blind glorification of sport’: Christian orthodox youths negotiate dominant societal and alternative Reformed sport discourses
