Nicholas Villanueva - Faculty Athletics Representative - Staff Directory

Staff Directory

Nicholas Villanueva

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Faculty Athletics Representative
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Nicholas (Nick) Villanueva is an Associate Professor and former Director of Critical Sports Studies. He is the author of three books and has a forthcoming book, Liberation, Sport, and the History of the International Gay Rodeo Association. Villanueva received two national book prizes for his work in Latinx studies. Villanueva’s current book project is an autoethnography of the Latinx rodeo experience in the International Gay Rodeo Association (IGRA). #My Gay Rodeo: Decolonizing Rodeo Through a Gay Vaquero Autoethnography is an intersectional examination of Latinx identity, Queer expression, rural lifestyle intricacies, and the paradox of masculine capital. #My Gay Rodeo is a cutting-edge experiment in examining identity manipulation that he lays claim to be known as Cowboy Drag, which reveals the fluidity of Latinx masculinity. Villanueva accomplishes this through complete immersion in the IGRA, by competing in twelve rodeos during an eleven-month season.

In addition to his research and teaching at CU, Villanueva works with the United States Department of the State and its Sport for Diplomacy program. In this role, he conducts workshops on social justice at the US Olympic Training Center for visiting international coaches.

His awards and fellowships include the 2018 Disability Services Faculty of the Year Award, the University of Colorado President’s Fund for the Humanities, the National Endowment for the Humanities, Ford Foundation, Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, and North American Society for Sports History Diversity Award. Villanueva is a first-generation college graduate. He honorably served for eight years in the US Army and received the National Defense Service Medal.

An avid outdoors person, Nick is thrilled to call Colorado his home.