Kirsten Hextrum

Dr. Kirsten Hextrum is an Associate Professor with tenure and the Coordinator of the College Student Services Administration (CSSA) Program at Oregon State University. Her research examines the social, cultural, and political entanglement of college access, intercollegiate athletics, and social stratification. Throughout, she interrogates public beliefs that position college sports as meritocratic and equitable organizations. In her book, Special Admission, (Rutgers University Press, 2021) she uncovered how athletic recruitment and preferential admission largely benefit white, middle-class athletes. Across a series of articles, she how universities comply with Title IX in ways that preserve whiteness and masculinity as organizational norms. In challenging the common sense of how college sports operate, she takes a relational approach to power, always considering how the (re)making of dominance mediates educational access and inclusion for historically marginalized groups. 

Dr. Hextrum has authored over 50 research outputs in leading journals across diverse disciplines including Harvard Education Review, Sociological Spectrum, Journal of Diversity in Higher Education, Journal of Sports Management, and International Review for the Sociology of Sport. Her research has been funded by institutional grants and external funding agencies including the Spencer Foundation. She disseminates her research beyond academic venues and has joined or founded various service initiatives. Her research has drawn national attention, including media coverage by The New York Times, CNN, The Atlantic, The Guardian, and NPR. She has designed trainings and workshops on Title IX and gender inequities for athletic professional associations, college athletic departments, and for the US Office of Civil Rights enforcement divisions.

Prior to joining the faculty at Oregon State, Dr. Hextrum was an Assistant Professor of Educational Leadership & Policy Studies and the Edith Kinney Gaylord Endowed Presidential Professor at the University of Oklahoma (2017-2022). She received her PhD in Social & Cultural Studies of Education at the University of California Berkeley (2017). She also spent seven years working in academic support for college athletes and competing as a DI rower—two experiences which continue to inform her research, service, and activism efforts. 

Selected Publications (for a full list, visit her google scholar page)

Hoffman, J. L., Hextrum, K., & Raphael-Woodward, V. (Eds). (Forthcoming in 2026). Separate but equal? Women-Identifying Athlete Experiences & Intersectionality in Campus Sports. Journal of Women and Gender in Higher Education Special Issue.

Hextrum, K., & Croom, H. (2025). Abolishing amateurism: Reimagining the future of U.S. college football. Kinesiology Review, 14(2), 155-165.

Hextrum, K. & Haslerig, S. (Eds.) (2024). College sport (in)equity: Working within and beyond the law to achieve intersectional racial justice praxis. Journal of Higher Education Athletics and Innovation, Special Issue.

Hextrum, K., Knoester, C., & Thompsett, J. (2024). Inequalities in Girls High School Sports Participation: How Social Class, Race/ethnicity, and Gender Route Opportunities to Play and Persist in Athletics. Sociological Focus, 57(2), 63-93. Doi: 10.1080/00380237.2024.2317480

Hextrum, K. (2024). College Overmatch: Privilege and the Rules of the Athletic Admissions Game. Sociological Spectrum, 44(1), 60-83. Doi: 10.1080/02732173.2023.2282571

Hextrum, K. (2023). Ideology of athletic merit: Transmission of privilege in college athlete admissions. Sociological Perspectives, 66(3), 565-584. https://doi.org/10.1177/07311214221134807

Hextrum, K., & Sethi, S. (2022). Title IX at 50: Legitimating state domination of women’s sport. International Review for the Sociology of Sport, 57(5) 655–672. https://doi.org/10.1177/10126902211037843

Hextrum, K. (2022). White Property Interests in College Athletic Admissions. Journal of Sport & Social Issues,46(4), 383-403. doi: 10.1177/01937235211015352

Hextrum, K. (2021). Special Admission: How college sports recruitment favors white suburban athletes. Rutgers University Press.