Dr Rebecca Olive
Honorary Senior Research Fellow
School of Human Movement and Nutrition Sciences
Affiliate of Centre for Marine Science
Centre for Marine Science
Researcher biography
Rebecca Olive joined the School of Human Movement and Nutrition Sciences in 2017. Her work about lifestyle and nature sports contributes to critical cultural, social and historical teaching and research relating to sport, physical cultures, bodies, and health. Rebecca publishes in journals and books across Cultural Studies, Gender Studies, Sport Sociology, and Sport History, and has co-edited a book with Holly Thorpe, Women in Action Sport Cultures: Identity, Politics and Experience (2016).
In 2019, she was awarded a DECRA for her project baout human-ocean health, 'Understanding ecological sensibilities in recreational lifestyle sports'. This project explores practices and cultures of ocean swimming and surfing to understand intersections human and environmental health. The project uses ethnographic methods (fieldwork and interviews) to make sense of ocean-swimmers’ and surfers' relationships to sharks, plastics, and localism at a range of urban and regional beaches. You can read more about this work on her Moving Oceans website.
Rebecca also continues focus on issues of equity and diversity and action/lifestyle sports and cultures, in particular women's experiences. Taking a feminist cultural studies approach to theories of power, ethics and pedagogy, she is interested in how we influence cultural change in everyday lived physical cultures towards more inclusive access and participation. Current projects include:
- Bluespaces and health
- Nature sports
- Women in sport, physical activity and leisure practices
- Self-representation on social media – elite athletes, recreational sports and fitness cultures
- Feminist research methods
Publications
Book Chapters
Olive, Rebecca, Hillary, Fiona, Steele, Wendy, Wise, Kit, da Silva Faustino, Alexandre, Guerra-Tão, Nícolas and Bugedo, Paloma (2024). Climate Activism and Attunement through Creative Practices. The Routledge Handbook of Grassroots Climate Activism. (pp. 113-126) London: Routledge. doi: 10.4324/9781003396567-10
Olive, Rebecca (2024). Recounting encounter. The Ocean, Blue Spaces and Outdoor Learning. (pp. 51-65) London: Routledge. doi: 10.4324/9781003272496-5
Wheaton, Belinda and Olive, Rebecca (2024). Lifestyle sports, blue space and mental health: Examining the case of surf therapy. Routledge Handbook on Spaces of Mental Health and Wellbeing. (pp. 157-168) Taylor and Francis. doi: 10.4324/9781003345725-14
Olive, Rebecca (2023). How to swim without water: swimming as an ecological sensibility. Living with water: everyday encounters and liquid connections. (pp. 235-253) edited by Charlotte Bates and Kate Moles. Manchester, United Kingdom: Manchester University Press.
Olive, Rebecca (2020). Thinking the social through myself: reflexivity in research practice. Research Methods in Outdoor Studies. (pp. 121-129) edited by Barbara Humberstone and Heather Prince. London, United Kingdom: Routledge. doi: 10.4324/9780429199004-12
Britton, Easkey, Olive, Rebecca and Wheaton, Belinda (2019). Surfers and leisure: 'Freedom' to surf? Contested spaces on the coast. Living with the sea: knowledge, awareness and action. (pp. 147-166) edited by Mike Brown and Kimberley Peters. Abingdon, United Kingdom: Routledge. doi: 10.4324/9781315161839-10
Olive, Rebecca (2018). Un/intentional pedagogies: impacts of feminist ethics and methods in practice. The Palgrave handbook of feminism and sport, leisure and physical education. (pp. 335-349) edited by Louise Mansfield, Jayne Caudwell, Belinda Wheaton and Beccy Watson. London, United Kingdom: Palgrave Macmillan. doi: 10.1057/978-1-137-53318-0_21
Olive, Rebecca and Thorpe, Holly (2018). Feminist ethnography and physical culture: towards reflexive, political, and collaborative methods. Physical culture, ethnography, and the body: theory, method, and praxis. (pp. 114-128) edited by Michael D. Giardina and Michele K. Donnelly. London, United Kingdom: Routledge. doi: 10.4324/9781315266602-7
Olive, Rebecca, Roy, Georgina and Wheaton, Belinda (2018). Stories of surfing: surfing, space and subjectivity/intersectionality. Surfing, sex, genders and sexualities. (pp. 148-167) edited by lisahunter. Abingdon, Oxon, United Kingdom: Routledge. doi: 10.4324/9781315201238
Lazarow, Neil and Olive, Rebecca (2017). Culture, meaning and sustainability in surfing. Sustainable surfing. (pp. 202-218) edited by Gregory Borne and Jess Ponting. Abingdon, Oxon, United Kingdom: Routledge. doi: 10.4324/9781315680231-13
Olive, Rebecca (2017). The political imperative of feminism. Routledge handbook of physical cultural studies. (pp. 51-60) edited by Michael L. Silk, David L. Andrews and Holly Thorpe. London: Routledge.
Olive, Rebecca (2016). Surfing, localism, place-based pedagogies, and ecological sensibilities in Australia. Routledge international handbook of outdoor studies. (pp. 501-510) edited by Barbara Humberstone, Heather Prince and Karla A. Henderson. Abingdon, Oxon, UK: Routledge. doi: 10.4324/9781315768465-56
Olive, Rebecca (2016). Women who surf: female difference, intersecting subjectivities and cultural pedagogies. The pedagogies of cultural studies. (pp. 179-195) edited by Andrew Hickey. New York, NY United States: Routledge. doi: 10.4324/9781315689739
Thorpe, Holly, Olive, Rebecca, Beal, Becky, Booth, Douglas, Laurendeau, Jason, Palmer, Catherine, Rinehart, Robert E. and Wheaton, Belinda (2016). Looking back, moving forward? reflections from early action sport researchers. Women in action sport cultures: identity, politics and experience. (pp. 23-44) edited by Holly Thorpe and Rebecca Olive. London, United Kingdom: Palgrave Macmillan. doi: 10.1057/978-1-137-45797-4_2
Thorpe, Holly and Olive, Rebecca (2016). Conducting observations in sport and exercise settings. Routledge handbook of qualitative research in sport and exercise. (pp. 124-138) edited by Brett Smith and Andrew C. Sparkes. London, United Kingdom: Routledge.
Olive, Rebecca, Thorpe, Holly, Roy, Georgina, Nemani, Mihi, lisahunter, Wheaton, Belinda and Humberstone, Barbara (2016). Surfing together: exploring the potential of a collaborative ethnographic moment. Women in action sport cultures: identity, politics and experience. (pp. 45-68) edited by Holly Thorpe and Rebecca Olive. London, United Kingdom: Palgrave Macmillan. doi: 10.1057/978-1-137-45797-4_3
Olive, Rebecca (2015). Interactivity, blogs, and the ethics of doing sport history. Sport history in the digital era. (pp. 157-179) edited by Gary Osmond and Murray G. Phillips. Champaign, IL, USA: University of Illinois Press.
Olive, Rebecca (2009). Expression session. Wax On: From Cronulla to Palm Beach and Beyond. (pp. 10-11) edited by Daniel Mudie Cunningham. Gymea, NSW: Hazelhurst Regional Gallery and Arts Centre.
Journal Articles
Irving, Rohann, Olive, Rebecca, Phillips, Murray G. and Carah, Nicholas (2024). ‘It’s pretty sad if I’m just betting by myself … ’: navigating shame and stigma in everyday sports betting. Leisure Studies, 1. doi: 10.1080/02614367.2024.2364788
Townsend, Stephen, Phillips, Murray G., Osmond, Gary and Olive, Rebecca (2024). Concussion’s Past: An Introduction. Journal of Sport History, 51 (2), 2-14. doi: 10.5406/21558450.51.2.02
Stephens, Elizabeth, Offord, Baden, Slater, Lisa, Khorana, Sukhmani, Noble, Greg, Gibson, Mark, Montgomery, Lola and Olive, Rebecca (2024). Celebrating 30 years of the CSAA. Continuum, 37 (6), 1-13. doi: 10.1080/10304312.2023.2296343
Wheaton, Belinda and Olive, Rebecca (2023). The challenges of ‘researching with responsibility’: developing intersectional reflexivity for understanding surfing, place and community in Aotearoa New Zealand. Qualitative Research, 24 (5), 1162-1185. doi: 10.1177/14687941231216643
Olive, Rebecca (2023). Oceans of knowledge: navigating ecologies of time and place. Sporting Traditions, 40 (1), 19-30.
Toffoletti, Kim, Thorpe, Holly, Olive, Rebecca, Pavlidis, Adele and Moran, Claire (2023). A feminist embodied ethics of social media use: corporeal vulnerability and relational care practices. New Media & Society, 27 (1), 43-61. doi: 10.1177/14614448231171560
Olive, Rebecca (2023). Swimming and surfing in ocean ecologies: encounter and vulnerability in nature-based sport and physical activity. Leisure Studies, 42 (5), 679-692. doi: 10.1080/02614367.2022.2149842
Burrows, Stephen, Olive, Rebecca, O'Brien, Stacey and Galloway, Tamara (2022). Connection is key when there's no planet B: the need to innovate environmental science communication with transdisciplinary approaches. Science of the Total Environment, 853 158435, 1-4. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2022.158435
Olive, Rebecca, Townsend, Stephen and Phillips, Murray G. (2022). ‘Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted’: searching for the value of metrics and altmetrics in sociology of sport journals. International Review for the Sociology of Sport, 58 (3) 10126902221107467, 431-454. doi: 10.1177/10126902221107467
Olive, Rebecca and Enright, Eimear (2021). Sustainability in the Australian Health and Physical Education Curriculum: an ecofeminist analysis. Sport, Education and Society, 26 (4), 389-402. doi: 10.1080/13573322.2021.1888709
Wheaton, Belinda, Waiti, Jordan T. A., Olive, Rebecca and Kearns, Robin (2021). Coastal Communities, Leisure and Wellbeing: Advancing a Trans-Disciplinary Agenda for Understanding Ocean-Human Relationships in Aotearoa New Zealand. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 18 (2) 450, 450-20. doi: 10.3390/ijerph18020450
Olive, Rebecca, Osmond, Gary and Phillips, Murray G. (2021). Sisterhood, pleasure and marching: Indigenous women and leisure. Annals of Leisure Research, 24 (1), 13-28. doi: 10.1080/11745398.2019.1624181
Toffoletti, Kim, Thorpe, Holly, Pavlidis, Adele, Olive, Rebecca and Moran, Claire (2021). Visibility and vulnerability on Instagram: negotiating safety in women’s online-offline fitness spaces. Leisure Sciences, 45 (8), 1-19. doi: 10.1080/01490400.2021.1884628
Olive, Rebecca and Wheaton, Belinda (2021). Understanding Blue Spaces: Sport, Bodies, Wellbeing, and the Sea. Journal of Sport and Social Issues, 45 (1), 3-19. doi: 10.1177/0193723520950549
Toffoletti, Kim, Olive, Rebecca, Thorpe, Holly and Pavlidis, Adele (2021). Doing feminist physical cultural research in digital spaces: reflections, learnings and ways forward. Qualitative Research in Sport, Exercise and Health, 13 (1), 11-25. doi: 10.1080/2159676x.2020.1836513
Brömdal, Annette, Olive, Rebecca and Walker, Brooke (2020). Questioning representations of athletes with elevated testosterone levels in elite women’s sports: a critical policy analysis. International Journal of Sport Policy and Politics, 12 (4), 699-715. doi: 10.1080/19406940.2020.1834432
Mills, Catriona, Olive, Rebecca and Clark, Nina (2020) Sinking and Floating on a Shoreless Sea: Co-Reading ‘The Fool and His Inheritance’. Paradoxa, 31 271-292.
Olive, Rebecca (2019). The trouble with newcomers: women, localism and the politics of surfing. Journal of Australian Studies, 43 (1), 39-54. doi: 10.1080/14443058.2019.1574861
Olive, Rebecca (2018). Embodied pedagogies in human movement studies classrooms: a postgraduate pathway into teaching and learning. Review of Education, Pedagogy, and Cultural Studies, 40 (3), 227-248. doi: 10.1080/10714413.2018.1472485
Wheaton, Belinda, Roy, Georgina and Olive, Rebecca (2017). Exploring critical alternatives for youth development through lifestyle sport: surfing and community development in Aotearoa/New Zealand. Sustainability, 9 (12) 2298, 2298. doi: 10.3390/su9122298
Aghtan, Kamillea, Ford, Akkadia, Kerruish, Erika, Olive, Rebecca, Sellberg, Karin and Stephens, Elizabeth (2016). Technicity, temporality, embodiment: guest editors’ introduction. Australian Feminist Studies, Virtual Special Issue
Olive, Rebecca (2016). Review of Seascapes:shaped by the sea, first edition, by Mike Brown and Barbara Humberstone, Farnham, Ashgate, February 2015, 216 pp., £65 (hardback), ISBN 978-1-4724-2435-8. Leisure Studies, 35 (4), 506-508. doi: 10.1080/02614367.2015.1040627
Olive, Rebecca (2015). Review of Scott Laderman, Empire in Waves: A Political History of Surfing (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2014), pp. xiiþ238, index and images, $65.00 (hardback), $26.95 (paperback). ISBN: 9780520279117. International Journal of the History of Sport, 32 (11-12), 1494-1496. doi: 10.1080/09523367.2015.1045691
Olive, Rebecca (2015). Reframing surfing: physical culture in online spaces. Media International Australia, 155 (1), 99-107. doi: 10.1177/1329878X1515500112
Olive, Rebecca (2015). The American surfer: radical culture and capitalism / Surfing life: surface, substructure and the commodification of the sublime. Sport in Society, 18 (3), 395-398. doi: 10.1080/17430437.2015.1010821
Olive, Rebecca, McCuaig, Louise and Phillips, Murray G. (2015). Women's recreational surfing: a patronising experience. Sport Education and Society, 20 (2), 258-276. doi: 10.1080/13573322.2012.754752
Pavlidis, Adele and Olive, Rebecca (2014). On the track/in the bleachers: authenticity and feminist ethnographic research in sport and physical cultural studies. Sport in Society, 17 (2), 218-232. doi: 10.1080/17430437.2013.828703
Olive, Rebecca (2013). 'Making friends with the neighbours': blogging as a research method. International Journal of Cultural Studies, 16 (1), 71-84. doi: 10.1177/1367877912441438
Thorpe, Holly and Olive, Rebecca (2012). Introduction: feminist sport history in the past, present and future. Journal of Sport History, 39 (3), 373-377.
Thorpe, H. and Olive, R. (2012). The power, politics and potential of feminist sports history: a multi-generational dialogue. Journal of Sport History, 39 (3), 379-394. doi: 10.1353/sph.2012.0105
Thorpe, Holly and Olive, Rebecca (2012). Introduction. Journal of Sport History, 39 (3), 373-377. doi: 10.5406/jsporthistory.39.3.373
Thorpe, Holly and Olive, Rebecca (2012). Introduction. Journal of Sport History, 39 (3), 373-378. doi: 10.1353/sph.2012.0099
Olive, Rebecca and Thorpe, Holly (2011). Negotiating the 'F-Word' in the Field: Doing Feminist Ethnography in Action Sport Cultures. Sociology of Sport Journal, 28 (4), 421-440. doi: 10.1123/ssj.28.4.421
Conference Papers
Britton, Easkey, Olive, Rebecca and Wheaton, Belinda (2019). Surfers and leisure 'Freedom' to surf ? Contested spaces on the coast. Seascapes Symposium - Living with the Sea, Auckland, New Zealand, 16-19 February 2016. Abingdon, Oxon, United Kingdom: Routledge.
Olive, Rebecca (2016). Going surfing/doing research: Learning how to negotiate cultural politics from women who surf. Melbourne, Australia: Routledge. doi: 10.1080/10304312.2016.1143199
Olive, Rebecca (2012). Embodied understandings, affective pedagogies: ‘doing’ Cultural Studies in the classroom’. Cultural Studies Association of Australasia Annual Conference (CSAA 2012), Sydney, Australia, 4-6 December 2012.
Olive, Rebecca (2009). Reflexitivity: Locating myself in research. Sporting Traditions XVII. The Cultural Paradigm: Reinvigorating Sport History?, Wellington, New Zealand, 30 June - 3 July, 2009. New Zealand: Routledge.
Thesis
Olive, Rebecca Jane (2013). Blurred lines: Women, subjectivities and surfing. PhD Thesis, School of Human Movement Studies, The University of Queensland.
Newspaper Articles
Olive, Rebecca (2020, 12 31). Why going for a swim in the ocean can be good for you, and for nature The Conversation
Olive, Rebecca (2020, 01 01). Living with sharks White Horses