Courtney Cox to discuss gender, media, politics within basketball at upcoming URI humanities lecture  – Rhody Today

KINGSTON, R.I. – Feb. 16, 2026 – Courtney M. Cox follows athletes, coaches, journalists and advocates of women’s basketball as they pursue careers within the sport. She also explores the intersection of race and gender against the backdrop of many leagues around the United States and the world, such as the WNBA and the NCAA.

In Cox’s book, Double Crossover: Gender, Media, and Politics in Global Basketball, she explores how Black women and nonbinary athletes maneuver through the global sports media complex. Cox, a former ESPN associate director and now associate professor at the University of Oregon, will discuss her book and work during the University of Rhode Island’s Humanities and Popular Culture/Counterculture lecture series. 

Cox’s talk, followed by a book signing and reception, will be held Thursday, Feb. 26, at 4 p.m., in the Hope Room of the Robert J. Higgins Welcome Center, 45 Upper College Road, on the Kingston Campus.

The year-long lecture series, hosted by the URI Center for the Humanities, has already featured talks on music and social justice, art and Black Southern life, and Indigenous peoples’ space in pop culture. The series is co-sponsored by the URI College of Arts and Sciences, Division of Research and Economic Development, Department of Gender and Women’s Studies, a grant from the Mellon Foundation, and Department of Philosophy.

Cox’s presentation, which begins the series’ spring schedule, will also be livestreamed through the lecture series’ website. 

At the University of Oregon, Cox’s research examines issues related to identity, technology and labor through sports. Cox is also co-director with Perry Johnson of The Sound of Victory, a multi-platform digital humanities project that intersects music, sound and sport. Along with ESPN, Cox also previously worked for the Longhorn Network, National Public Radio affiliate KPCC in California and the WNBA’s Los Angeles Sparks.

Cox’s talk will be followed by a discussion on Taylor Swift by Stephanie Burt, a Harvard University professor and poetry expert, on Thursday, March 26. The series concludes on Thursday, April 23, with a talk on Shakespeare.

The full speaker roster can be found on the lecture series’ website. 

The annual signature yearlong lecture series, hosted by the University’s Center for the Humanities, is free and open to the public. A digital archive of last year’s lecture series can be found on the humanities center’s website. For more information on the series, email uri.humanities@gmail.com.