Life on a String: Examining the Mathematical and Playful Lives of Basketball Players

Abstract

This dissertation explores basketball court as a pro-Black play space through a qualitative study of one collegiate women’s basketball team: the Stephenson Owls. Drawing on situative and sociocultural theories of identity, the study examines how space, play, and mathematics were defined enacted, and valued by the players themselves. Through participant observations, interviews, and video-based conversations with players, I investigate how the team creates a pro-Black space marked by joy and creativity; how play manifests in both traditional and transgressive forms; and how mathematical thinking is embedded in players’ practices. Findings reveal the multitude of ways in which players navigate and re-author dominant narratives about athleticism, Blackness, and mathematical competence. The study contributes to theorizations of identity in STEM and sport by centering players’ perspectives, and it argues for taking Black play seriously as a generative and mathematically rich practice. In doing so, it challenges deficit framings in education and contributes to scholarship that imagines expansive possibilities for who is and can be mathematical.