Driving around Los Angeles, one would be surprised to realize that multiple outside parks and more hidden inside fields in former factories are fundamental sites for belonging and connection for queer Latinx women, many of whom are undocumented immigrants from Latin America. Kathy Pulupa, a doctoral candidate in the ASE Department, has uncovered the critical nature of the recreational soccer leagues that provide a vital subcultural space of support and connection for these women throughout southern California in her dissertation, Recreo and Survivance: Queer Latinx Women Soccer Players and their Foot Work for Survival. As a first-generation college Ecuadorian American student who received her B.A. from USC in Latinx Studies and Gender Studies, Pulupa continued to her Ph.D. work in the ASE Department, where she could take full advantage of her networks of support and knowledge of the region to complete this groundbreaking study.
The larger academic world first got to know of this impressive research with Pulupa’s first publication in the special issue of the American Quarterly, the signature journal in American Studies, in September 2023, entitled “The Body Issue: Sports and the Politics of Embodiment.” “Nos Vemos en la Cancha: Latinx Women Athletes Making Place in Los Angeles,” was the only article written by graduate student in that special issue, as well as the only article which focused on a non-professional level of sports. By November 2024, Pulupa had won the “Emerging Scholar Award” by the growing Sports Studies caucus of the American Studies Association, chaired by Amira Rose Davis of University of Texas, Austin and Courtney Cox of the University of Oregon, at the ASA annual meeting in Baltimore, Maryland. In April 2025, Pulupa was honored by the Institute for Citizens and Scholars with a MMUF dissertation grant, which will fund her sixth year of graduate study. We look forward to having Kathy complete her dissertation in the coming year and enter the job market, continuing her impressive record of achievements!