Tracie Canada

Dr. Tracie Canada is the Andrew W. Mellon Assistant Professor of Cultural Anthropology and Gender, Sexuality, and Feminist Studies at Duke University, affiliated with Trinity College of Arts & Sciences. She founded and directs the HEARTS (Health, Ethnography, and Race through Sports) Lab and collaborates with the Duke Sports & Race Project. Her ethnographic research examines race, sport, kinship, and embodied performance in American football contexts.

Education:

• Ph.D. in Anthropology, University of Virginia (2020)
• A.B., Duke University (2012)

Research Focus: Dr. Canada's work investigates how racialized bodies navigate institutional structures in collegiate sports, with emphasis on Black athletes' lived experiences, care networks, and resistance strategies. She employs ethnographic methods to analyze power dynamics in athletic institutions and communities.

Publication Trends: Her scholarship consistently addresses racial inequities in sports through anthropological lenses, with recent work focusing on Black maternal labor in football culture, historical revisionism in sports lore, and systemic anti-Blackness in athletic institutions.

Awards and Fellowships:

• Hunt Postdoctoral Fellowship, Wenner-Gren Foundation (2025)
• Graduate Student Research Grant, NCAA (2017)
• Knight Foundation Grant for 'Black in Blue: An Oral History' (2023-2025)

Academic Leadership: She leads interdisciplinary initiatives including the HEARTS Lab, which examines health disparities through sports ethnography, and co-organizes faculty intellectual communities on race and sports scholarship.