From Recruitment to Disposability: Mapping the Temporal and Educational Pathways of Black Women in Division I Basketball

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Thursday 7:45 am - Gold 4
  In Roundtable Session: Black Women, Labor, and Leadership in College Athletics

Abstract

This study maps the Division I educational pathway for Black women’s basketball players, tracing six critical milestones: (1) early talent identification, (2) AAU/recruiting circuits, (3) campus visits, (4) signing day, (5) life as an NCAA laborer, and (6) the disposal stage. Using Black feminism and a queer diasporic framework, I draw on participant narratives and photographs to analyze how movement, across bodies, institutions, and geographies, shapes and constrains the educational experiences of Black women athletes. This work recontextualizes the histories and futures of Black women in sport, offering a counternarrative to dominant institutional logics. By centering athlete voices, this project highlights the emotional, physical, and psychological tolls of the college sports economy and recovers an underdocumented yet impactful educational trajectory.

Author

• Iman Lathan, University at Buffalo - SUNY