Rate My Professor Matthew Masucci

Matthew A. Masucci, Ph.D., is Associate Dean for Academic Programs and Student Success at San José State University in the College of Health and Human Sciences. He has served as a faculty member in the Department of Kinesiology since 2002, including as department chair from 2014 to 2018. Masucci possesses extensive administrative experience in curriculum development, program assessment, accreditation processes, strategic and program planning, and student success programs. He co-directs the department's Qualitative Research Lab with Dr. Ted Butryn and actively participates in professional academic organizations while collaborating on interdisciplinary scholarship. Masucci has taught a broad range of undergraduate major, general education, graduate research, and elective courses in kinesiology.

Masucci earned a Ph.D. in Cultural Studies in Education, with an emphasis in Social-Cultural Foundations of Sport and Education, from the University of Tennessee in 2005; an M.A. in Philosophy, with an emphasis in Sport Philosophy, from Ohio University in 1994; and a B.A. in Liberal Studies, with minors in Philosophy and Psychology, from Salisbury University in 1989. His research primarily employs qualitative methodologies to interrogate sport and physical activity through the lenses of cultural studies, philosophy, and critical sport studies, focusing on sporting narratives and their implications for identity, meaning, and community. Key research areas encompass critical historical and political analysis of Mixed Martial Arts, doping knowledge and anti-doping education among elite female triathletes, discourse on marijuana and CBD use by professional athletes, narrative representations of disgraced cyclist Lance Armstrong, environmental connections in exercise settings, narrativization of cycle racing in popular literature, and multi-dimensional studies of the San José Bike Party. Selected publications include Masucci, M. A., & Johnson, J. (2025). Sport Tech Startups and Innovation. In Technology, Sport and Recreation (Routledge); Masucci, M., & Falcous, M. (2024). Cycling tribes: lifestyles, values, and aesthetics. Annals of Leisure Research; Chin, J., Masucci, M. A., & Johnson, J. (2020). Keep it rolling: Examining the San José Bike Party with Methods on the Move. Qualitative Research in Sport, Exercise and Health; and Butryn, T. M., & Masucci, M. A. (2009). Traversing the Matrix: Cyborg athletes, technology, and the environment. Journal of Sport and Social Issues.