Fighting for Sustainable Empowerment Community Lab

Fighting for Sustainable Empowerment: improving body-self-awareness with newcomer students at the University of Manitoba through sports karate and critical feminist theory is a qualitative research project that aims simultaneously to empower self-identifying women through karate training and feminist theoretical classes. The aim is to transform martial arts and combat sports (MACS) into safer and more inclusive spaces for women and girls. Using karate as a tool for empowerment, this project has two main objectives: 

• To implement a pilot pedagogical model for the empowerment of newcomer students identifying as women through the combination of sports karate training and feminist theoretical classes.
• To assess the pilot pedagogical model generating an evidence-informed seminar and presentation reporting the outcomes of this project for sustainable empowerment as a seed for a broader project. 

Knowledge mobilized as an outcome of this research will inform actions for sport development, public health and women’s advocacy. It will inform future initiatives to address violence against women (VAW) by empowering them while changing structures.

The documentary Lutadora follows Turelli and the women involved in the project. More information on the documentary.

This research examines the complex relationships between oppression, awareness, and power within the context of university-level, high performance sport. Specifically, we seek to understand how the embodiment of subalternity consolidates itself while shaping the behaviour of the person and explore the extent to which athletes, particularly those of marginalized backgrounds, may be unaware of the oppressions they face(d). 

We hypothesize that this unawareness may be enforced, if not produced, by the embodiment of subalternity through lived overlapping oppressions, potentially leading athletes to reification, self-punishment and reproduction of oppressions in sport arenas. A thorough understanding of these matters will help inform solutions to enhance athlete self-determination in sport settings.

This project is conducted internationally across 14 countries, with Turelli working alongside co-principal investigators Dr. Joanne Hill, University of Bedfordshire and Dr. Laura Gubby, Canterbury Christ Church University.

SHE RUNS is a qualitative research project that aims to generate detailed narratives about women’s experiences, perceptions and decisions related to risk and safety when running in public space (parks or streets) for leisure time physical activity. It provides evidence about the structural, environmental and interpersonal factors that affect women’s physical activity levels and experiences. 

Subsequently, this multi-method participatory research informs the development of researcher and practitioner networks in the fields of sport development, public health, crime reduction, planning and women’s advocacy. The project works towards informing future initiatives that take physical activity into account when addressing violence against women in public space. 

The project’s objectives are to: 

• Generate narratives of how women’s physical activity actions are affected by risk of violence and harassment.
• Analyse the discourses of risk and safety that women draw upon when running in public space in various cultural, political and geographical contexts internationally.

This project is a being developed alongside Dr. Chole Maclean of the University of West Scotland.

Building on Maclean’s 2024 RSE-funded research and Turelli’s research on feminist emancipatory martial arts, this research collaboration grant aims to co-create a survivor-informed toolkit for coaching martial arts to GBV survivors. Using feminist action-research, data will be collected via 4 focus groups with survivors in Scotland and Canada, and online analysis of existing sport-based trauma support guidelines. 

This research will address gaps in academic understanding of GBV survivors’ needs in sports contexts, and will inform the practice of martial arts governing bodies in Scotland and Canada.

This project is a collaboration with Cardiff Metropolitan University.

The FSE_international aims to expand FSE_project into an international level to impact MACS and women’s safety. With the support of Mitacs Globalink, international expansion will be granted to help to consolidate a community of collaborative practice focused on women’s experiences, voices and needs. Specifically, this project aims to implement in the UK the pedagogical model centring women in MACS developed in Canada. 

Turelli, F., Vaz, A. F., & Kirk, D. (2026). ‘You must feel it. If you do karate without feeling it, it’s empty: It doesn’t work’ – Aesthetic experience as motivation for women athletes’ continuity in sports karate. International Review for the Sociology of Sport, 0(0).

Turelli, F., & Kirk, D. (2026). Fight!? Empowering women through martial arts and combat sports. Martial Arts Studies, 19, 68–78.

Turelli, F., Vaz, A. F., & Kirk, D. (2026). “Suddenly they are crying. Damm! What is this?” – Conflicting martial-social gendered embodiment for women karate athletes. Special Issue on Embodiment. Sport, Education and Society.

Turelli, F., Sepúlveda, M., & Chen, Y. (2026). Assessing Equity, Diversity and Inclusion of Women in Martial Arts and Combat Sports: A Systematic Review. Martial Arts Studies, 19, 1–15.

Barquero-Ruiz, C., Scanlon, D., Castro-García, M., Turelli, F., & Valerio, C. (2026). Internationalisation at home … but now what? Early career academics navigating borders, boundaries and ‘grietas.’ Sport, Education and Society, 1–17.

Turelli, F., Kirk, D., & Vaz, A. F. (2025). “A boy is always going to be superior to a girl” – The ideal of fighting like a man or accepting inferiority for women karateka. Special Issue on Martial Arts. Eracle. Journal of Sport and Social Sciences. 8(1):102-17.

Turelli, F., Barquero-Ruiz, C., & Castro-García, M. (2025). Collaging the (Dis)illusio of Being International Early Career Women in Physical Education and Sport Sciences/Kinesiology. Quest, 78(2), 237-258.

Turelli, F., Spaaij, R., Carboon, E., McLachlan, F., Lambert, K., Jeanes, R., & Young, L. (2025). Intersectionality in research on equity, diversity, and inclusion in sport: A systematic review of the literature. International Review for the Sociology of Sport, 0(0).

Turelli, F., & Joseph, J. (2025). A tale of embodied domination, queer feelings, and decolonial disruption in sport. Women's Studies International Forum, 110.

Lambert, K., Young, L., Jeanes, R., Bevan, N., Roy, G., lisahunter, O’Connor, J., Spaaij, R., Turelli, F., & McLachlan, F. (2025). How is intersectionality being represented by Australian sports organisations? A content analysis. Sport, Education and Society.