Associate Professor of History
Hofstra University
Dr. Brenda Elsey studies the history of popular culture and politics in twentieth century Latin America, in addition to gender, social theory, sports and Pan-Americanism.
She co-edited the 2017 volume “Football and the Boundaries of History” and is the author of the forthcoming “Futbolera: Women and Sport in Latin America.”
She is a senior editor for Oxford University Press’ Research Essays in Latin American History: Southern Cone and recently edited a Radical History Review issue at Duke University Press, entitled “Historicizing the Politics and Pleasure of Sport” with Peter Alegi and Amy Chazkel. She is currently working on a monograph Futbolera: Women, Gender, and Sexuality in Latin American Sport.
Elsey’s previous publications include a monograph, Citizens and Sportsmen: Fútbol and Politics in Twentieth Century Chile (University of Texas, 2011), and various articles, including, “Breaking the Machine: The Politics of South American Football,” in Global Latin America (University of California Press, 2016), “Bad Ambassadors: A History of the Pan-American Games of the 1950s,” International Journal of Sport History, forthcoming, “As the World is My Witness:’ Popular Culture and the Chilean Solidarity Movement, 1974-1987,” in Topographies of Transnationalism (University of Wisconsin Press, 2013) She has several articles forthcoming, including “Sport, Gender, and Politics in Latin America,” in Oxford University’s Sport in History(2014),and “Football at the “end” of the World: the 1962 World Cup in Chile,” in Kay Schiller and Stefan Rinke’s Histories of the World Cup (Göttingen, Wallstein, 2014).
In 2012 Elsey won the Stessin Prize for best faculty publication at Hofstra University. She has been the co-director of the Latin American and Caribbean Studies program at Hofstra since 2008 and directed the Women’s Studies program from 2009 to 2013. She is currently on the chairperson of the Advisory Board for Hofstra’s Center for Civic Engagement. She has written on sport and social justice for popular publications including The New Republic, The Allrounder, and Sport’s Illustrated. She tweets, occasionally, but sincerely @politicultura.