Declan Abernethy, Ph.D.

Postdoctoral Fellow

School of History and Sociology of Technology and Science

Georgia Institute of Technology

Declan
Abernethy

Ph.D.

I'm an interdisciplinary scholar studying women's soccer and the US Women's National Team's 40-year fight for equal pay. My other work follows the cities that host sport mega-events and who ends up paying for them. I teach courses on the intersection of sport, society, and technology at Georgia Tech, and coach varsity soccer in Atlanta.

Publications Contact CV Google Scholar LinkedIn
Declan Abernethy, Ph.D. — Postdoctoral Fellow at Georgia Institute of Technology

Updates

News

Nov 2026

Interviewed on "Atlanta Loses Historic SEC Title Game to CFP." FOX 5 Atlanta.

July 2026

Quoted in "From Record Viewership to Unlikely Friendships, How Soccer Won the World Cup." The Christian Science Monitor.

July 2026

Quoted in "FIFA President Gianni Infantino's Private Jet Flew 57,700 Miles During World Cup." Bloomberg.

July 2026

Quoted in "Metro Atlanta Short-Term Rental Owners Say Business Is Booming Thanks to World Cup." WSB-TV.

June 2026

Interviewed on "One on One: Atlanta's World Cup Moment." 11Alive.

Earlier News Show Less

June 2026

Quoted in "Atlanta's World Cup Beyond the Hype." Georgia Tech News.

May 2026

Interviewed by Georgia Tech Institute Communications for "World Cup Puts Atlanta Back in the Global Spotlight." Georgia Tech News.

May 2026

Quoted in "PlayFairATL Tracks Promises Made by Atlanta Officials in City's World Cup Action Plan." WABE.

May 2026

Launched the Atlanta 2026 World Cup Human Rights Plan Tracker at cupwatch.org.

Apr 2026

Won Drew Charter School Coach of the Year Award.

Mar 2026

Invited talk: "The Women's Games: How the 1996 Olympics Changed the Future of the US Women's National Soccer Team." Georgia Institute of Technology Library, Atlanta, GA.

Work

Research

Sport Sociology · Science & Technology Studies · Sport History · Labor & Gender

My research sits at the intersection of sport, technoscience, and urban politics. I'm currently working on a book project that traces the U.S. Women's National Soccer Team's nearly four-decade fight for equal pay using newspapers, court documents, memoirs, and oral histories.

My other work examines how women's soccer grew its audience through digital media, how Atlanta's leadership coalition has used stadiums and mega-events to sell the city while displacing its poorest residents, and how sports governing bodies use rules and biomedicine to regulate athletic bodies.

Book Project

Book

Grass Ceiling: The United States Women's National Soccer Team and the Fight for Equal Pay

In progress · Developed from my doctoral dissertation, Georgia Tech, 2025

A socio-historical examination of the USWNT, the roots of women's soccer in the United States, and the team's decades-long struggle for labor advancement. The book traces how Title IX, shifting ideas about gender and athleticism, and the political economy of the sport shaped both the team and the fight for equal pay that defined it.

History · Sports · Gender

Mega-Events & Cities

How World Cups, Olympics, and Super Bowls reshape urban landscapes — who builds them, who profits, and who pays.

Sport Sociology

Sport as a social institution — how athletic cultures, bodies, and organizations reflect and reproduce hierarchies of race, gender, class, and nation.

Atlanta & Urban Growth

A century of "Imagineering Atlanta" — from the city too busy to hate to the 2026 World Cup, and the communities displaced along the way.

Sports & Political Economy

Stadium deals, public subsidies, and the widening gap between what city leaders promise and what residents receive.

Women's Soccer History

Title IX, gender, and the political economy of the USWNT — how American women's soccer became a dominant program and a cultural force.

Science & Technology Studies

Examining how technology shapes social relations — and how social relations determine which technologies get built and for whom.

Honors

  • — Herbert P. Haley Fellowship, Georgia Tech
  • — BOLD Graduate Fellow (Provost Fund)
  • — Homer Rice Award, HTS
  • — Ivan Allen Graduate Essay Competition, 2nd Place
  • — Future Faculty Fellow, Center for Teaching and Learning, Georgia Tech

Scholarship

Publications

In Progress Proposed

Playing Host: Place-Based Learning and the Sporting Mega-Event

Declan James Abernethy

Proposed · Acceptance update expected December 2026.

Book Chapter 2025

Hitting the Net: How Women's Soccer Scored Big Online

Declan James Abernethy

In Kirk Bowman and John Boyd (eds.), Soccer, Globalization and Innovation: The Beautiful Game in the 21st Century. Routledge, 2025.

An examination of how the internet and digital media transformed the visibility, fandom, and commercial power of women's soccer — and how the USWNT in particular leveraged online platforms to build an audience that outpaced the institutional support the sport received.

Book Chapter 2025

Selling the Dream of a United Atlanta: Atlanta United FC, Imagined Community, and Inequality in Modern Atlanta

Declan James Abernethy, Megan Conville, and Opal McCoy Gay

In The Performative City: An Approach to the Study of Urban Policy. Waveland Press, 2025.

An analysis of how Atlanta United FC has been deployed as a vehicle for civic branding and economic development — and how the promise of a "united" Atlanta obscures deepening inequality in the neighborhoods surrounding its stadium.

Review Dec 2025

Review of The Ethics of Performance Enhancing Drugs in Sports, by Sandra McCalla

Declan James Abernethy

H-Sci-Med-Tech, H-Net Reviews, December 2025.

H-Net ↗
Review Aug 2025

Review of Inventing for Sports, eds. Eric Hintz and Arthur A. Daemmrich

Declan James Abernethy

H-Sci-Med-Tech, H-Net Reviews, August 2025.

H-Net ↗
Review May 2022

Review of Beyond the Finish Line: Images, Evidence, and the History of the Photo-Finish, by Jonathan Finn

Declan James Abernethy

H-Sci-Med-Tech, H-Net Reviews, May 2022.

H-Net ↗
Review 2022

FIFA Uncovered (2022), Dir. Daniel Gordon

Declan James Abernethy

Journal of Sport History 49, no. 3 (2022): 289–91.

Dissertation 2025

Grass Ceiling: The United States Women's National Soccer Team and the Fight for Equal Pay

Declan Abernethy

Doctoral Dissertation · Georgia Institute of Technology · Committee: Johnny Smith (Chair), Mary McDonald, Daniel Amsterdam, Kirk Bowman, Jaime Schultz

Currently being developed into a book project.

A socio-historical examination of the United States Women's National Soccer Team, tracing the roots of women's soccer in the United States and the team's decades-long struggle for labor advancement. Using qualitative and mixed-methods approaches — including interviews and physical and digital archival research — the dissertation examines how Title IX, shifting ideas about gender and athleticism, and the political economy of American sport shaped both the team and the equal pay fight that came to define it.

Classroom

Teaching

I design and teach four courses at Georgia Tech, managing all aspects of course development — from curriculum design and assessment to asynchronous delivery for online sections. My courses have reached hundreds of students across in-person and online formats.

My pedagogical approach is rooted in Universal Design for Learning (UDL) and Transparency in Learning and Teaching (TILT), creating inclusive learning environments where students engage meaningfully with one another across perspectives. I prioritize student success and active learning through small teaching strategies — helping students connect theory to lived experience and develop critical thinking skills they carry beyond the classroom.

Featured

Cultivating Nonlinear Thinkers Ready to Engage with a Mega-Event in their City

Georgia Tech College of Liberal Arts, 2026.

Watch on YouTube

Online

Science, Technology, and Sports

HTS 3089

How technology has transformed athletic competition, training, and the business of sport — from performance analytics to stadium surveillance to the politics of doping.

HTS · Georgia Tech

In Person

Urban Atlanta and Sporting Mega-Events

HTS 3075

Atlanta's history told through its pursuit of spectacle — the 1996 Olympics, Super Bowls, and the 2026 World Cup — and what these mega-events have meant for the city's communities.

HTS · Georgia Tech

Online

Sociology of Sports

HTS 3085

A sociological examination of sport as a social institution — exploring how sport intersects with race, gender, class, politics, and technology in American life.

HTS · Georgia Tech

Online

Technology and Society

HTS 2084

An introduction to how technology and society shape each other — examining the historical, political, and social forces that drive technological change and determine who benefits.

HTS · Georgia Tech

Public Scholarship

Public Engagement

I try to work as often as I can for the public through writing and interviews. My newsletter covers women's soccer and American soccer — translating research into something anyone can follow.

Read my newsletter

On the Pitch

Coaching

Just like teaching, coaching is about development. I work closely with student-athletes to support their growth not just as players but as young people navigating high school, identity, and their futures — translating the same values I bring to the classroom: collaboration, resilience, and critical reflection.

Before coaching at the high school level, I coached girls club soccer at Inter Atlanta FC across age groups from U10 to U15, working with young players and their families across a broad range of developmental stages.

Drew Charter School · Atlanta, GA · 2023–Present

Boys · Head Coach, 2024–Present (Assistant Coach, 2023)

  • → 2026 2A Region 6 Champions
  • → 2025 2A State Champions
  • → 2025 2A Region 6 Champions
  • → 2024 2A Elite 8

Girls · Head Coach, 2026–Present

  • → 2026 2A Region 6 Champions — took over mid-season
  • → 2026 Drew Charter Coach of the Year

Inter Atlanta FC · 2022–2024

Girls club coach — U10, U13, U14, U15 age groups.

Licenses & Qualifications

  • → United States Soccer Federation (USSF) C License (2024)
  • → Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) C License (In progress)

State

Champions · 2025

3×

Region 6 Titles · 2025 & 2026

Declan Abernethy celebrating the 2025 GHSA 2A State Championship with his players

Contact

Get in Touch

I welcome questions about my research and teaching. Students, journalists, and anyone working on questions about sports, cities, or technology are welcome to reach out.

Location

Atlanta, Georgia

Institution

Georgia Institute of Technology

School of History & Sociology of Technology and Science

Google Scholar

Publications & citations

© 2025 Declan Abernethy

Research Teaching Public Engagement Coaching