About

Derek Van Rheenen is a professor at the Berkeley School of Education with research interests that include the cultural studies of sport, nature sports, sport tourism, ecopedagogy, and the connections between sports, learning, and schooling. He explores the role of intercollegiate athletics within the American university system and has contributed to understanding the social and cultural dimensions of sport through his scholarly work. A former Academic All-American and professional soccer player, Van Rheenen teaches courses on sport, culture, and education, and has been recognized for his academic excellence with the Outstanding Dissertation Award in 1998 from UC Berkeley's School of Education. He is the Faculty Director of the Cultural Studies of Sport in Education (CSSE) Master's degree specialization and serves as the Executive Director of the Athletic Study Center at UC Berkeley, a position he has held since 2001. Van Rheenen has also been a Visiting Professor at the University of Lille and the International University of Monaco, and is frequently invited to speak at national and international conferences, where he discusses the societal role of sport and its intersections with schooling, especially in American college sports.

Research topics

• Political Science
• Sociology
• Computer Science
• Business
• Environmental science
• Archaeology
• Epistemology
• Geography
• Engineering
• Environmental planning
• Environmental resource management
• Cartography
• Economic geography
• Philosophy
• Regional science

Selected publications

• The Promise of Soccer in America: The Open Play of Ethnic Subcultures

  2026-02-16

  book-chapter1st authorCorresponding

  This essay juxtaposes the perceived lack of success of professional soccer in the United States with the nation’s rich history of ethnic and amateur soccer. It argues how soccer as ethnic subculture has provided a means for minority ethnic communities to construct a unique cultural identity while becoming a part of an emerging multicultural nation. In evidence of this more complex and nuanced process of cultural assimilation, the essay chronicles the rise of the Greek-American Athletic Club in the San Francisco Soccer Football League (SFSFL), the oldest American soccer league in continuous existence. Perhaps reflective of other urban ethnic soccer clubs and the immigrant communities supporting their team, the San Francisco Greek-Americans initially recruited players solely from their own community. Over time, however, the team began to recruit players based on their competitive potential rather than their ethnic heritage. With a mixture of non-Greek foreign-born and US-born players, the San Francisco Greek-Americans made the Bay Area Hellenic communities proud by becoming one of the most dominant amateur soccer teams in the history of the SFSFL and the United States.

  PublisherDOI

• Beyond the Binary: Re-Examining Male-to-Female (MTF) Transgender Inclusion in American College Sports

  Journal of Education and Culture Studies · 2025-02-24

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  Transgender bodies problematize sport. Currently structured within a strict gender binary of “male” and “female”, the visible structural challenge of transgender student athletes' existence has been a subject of heightened controversy and division. In particular, there is a perceived threat of transgender participation in American college sports. The purpose of this study is to outline the recent policy changes of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) and to highlight the real-life impacts on transgender student athletes’ (TSAs) experiences. This qualitative study utilized semi-structured interviews of six male-to-female (MTF) TSAs to foreground their voices and lived experiences. Results were hierarchically coded, revealing the multi-layered risk exclusion poses to transgender well-being as defined by (a) the impact on self-identity, and therefore mental & emotional health (micro) and (b) the impact on their social inclusion and sense of belonging (meso). The paper concludes with a call to action for inclusive policy and the promotion of genuine athletic opportunities within the American education system.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Embodying the Ineffable: An Exploration of Switch, the First-ever Exhibition of Queer Surfing

  Journal of Education and Culture Studies · 2025-02-28

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  This paper explores the first ever exhibition of queer surfing, also known as Switch: An Exhibition of Queer Surfing, Against the Binary Against Hierarchy, which hosted more than 40 non-binary, trans, and queer surfers at Linda Mar beach in Pacifica, California in June 2023. Switch intended to serve as a non-traditional showcase of queer and trans wave riding, without divisions based on gender, board, or body. This paper investigates how Switch aimed to resist male hegemony in surf culture, and renegotiate the dominant values ascribed to contemporary surf culture, with its emphasis on professionalization, competitiveness, and conformity. Employing a qualitative methodology, semi-structured interviews were conducted with six participants and organizers of Switch to explore how they perceived the event and its larger implications. Through thematic analysis, this study found that Switch cultivated queer possibility and articulations of liberation for study participants. Switch was regarded as successful in affirming their queer and surfer identities simultaneously, presenting opportunities to envision what a queer future in surfing may look like. The findings indicate that queer surfers seek to create alternative spaces within this social practice where the vibrancy and joy of queer culture can be boldly and aesthetically surfaced.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Nachhaltigkeit im Sporttourismus

  2025-01-01

  book-chapter
  PublisherDOI

• Embodying the Ineffable: An Exploration of Switch, the First-ever Exhibition of Queer Surfing

  Journal of Education and Culture Studies · 2025-02-28

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  This paper explores the first ever exhibition of queer surfing, also known as Switch: An Exhibition of Queer Surfing, Against the Binary Against Hierarchy, which hosted more than 40 non-binary, trans, and queer surfers at Linda Mar beach in Pacifica, California in June 2023. Switch intended to serve as a non-traditional showcase of queer and trans wave riding, without divisions based on gender, board, or body. This paper investigates how Switch aimed to resist male hegemony in surf culture, and renegotiate the dominant values ascribed to contemporary surf culture, with its emphasis on professionalization, competitiveness, and conformity. Employing a qualitative methodology, semi-structured interviews were conducted with six participants and organizers of Switch to explore how they perceived the event and its larger implications. Through thematic analysis, this study found that Switch cultivated queer possibility and articulations of liberation for study participants. Switch was regarded as successful in affirming their queer and surfer identities simultaneously, presenting opportunities to envision what a queer future in surfing may look like. The findings indicate that queer surfers seek to create alternative spaces within this social practice where the vibrancy and joy of queer culture can be boldly and aesthetically surfaced.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Conceiving of Islands as Ecoterritories

  Sports economics, management and policy · 2024-01-01 · 1 citations

  book-chapter
  PublisherDOI

• Sport Tourism, a Catalyst for Sustainable Development in Island Territories: Dynamics, Stakeholders and Challenges in the Indian Ocean

  Sports economics, management and policy · 2024-01-01

  book-chapter
  PublisherDOI

• Sport Tourism, Island Territories, and Sustainable Development: A Literature Review

  Sports economics, management and policy · 2024-01-01 · 1 citations

  review1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• A Comparative Study of Small Islands, Sport Tourism, and Sustainable Development: A Local to Global Perspective

  Sports economics, management and policy · 2024-01-01 · 5 citations

  book-chapter1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• A Comparative Methodology Re(de)fined: Place or Space

  Sports economics, management and policy · 2024-01-01

  book-chapter1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

Frequent coauthors

• Ricardo Melo

  31 shared

• Claude Sobry

  17 shared

• Sean Gammon

  5 shared

• Jason R. Atwood

  5 shared

• Olivier Naria

  5 shared

• Claude Sobry

  4 shared

• Laura Pryor

  University of Wisconsin–Eau Claire

  3 shared

• Herbert D. Simons

  2 shared

Awards & honors

• Outstanding Dissertation Award in the School of Education, U…
• Chancellor's Public Scholar at the University of California,…