On December 16, at 5:00 PM, the Anthropology Research Center and the Doctoral Program in Anthropology at Ilia State University will host a lecture by Katie Rose Hejtmanek, Professor of Anthropology and Children and Youth Studies at Brooklyn College, of the City University of New York(CUNY), titled – “The Cult of CrossFit: Cultural Christianity in the Gym”.

CrossFit has developed a fascinating culture in the United States which shapes everyday life for the people devoted to it. CrossFit claims to be many things: a business, a brand, a tremendously difficult fitness regimen, a community, a way to gain salvation, and a method to survive the apocalypse. Drawing upon years of immersing herself in CrossFit gyms in the United States and across six continents, her book, The Cult of CrossFit, illustrates how US CrossFit operates using distinctly American codes, ranging from its intensity and patriarchal militarism to its emphasis on (white) salvation and the adoration of the hero and vigilante. In this talk, Hejtmanek discusses how despite presenting itself as a secular space, CrossFit is both heavily influenced by and deeply intertwined with American Christian values, often in ways people do not even identify as Christian.

Katie Rose Hejtmanek is Professor of Anthropology and Children and Youth Studies at Brooklyn College, of the City University of New York(CUNY). She is the author of Friendship, Love, and Hip Hop: An Ethnography of African American Men in Psychiatric Custody and co-editor of Gender and Power in Strength Sports: Strong as Feminist. She has also written for popular audiences and in academic journals, most recently on anxiety in American Anthropologist in collaboration with her Georgian colleague Nutsa Batiashvili. Dr. Hejtmanek is spending the academic year at Free University as a Fulbright Scholar. She is also a world and national champion in masters weightlifting, and is learning jiu jitsu while in Georgia.

Working Language: English

Date and Time: December 16, 5:00 PM

Location: G106, G Building, 1 Giorgi Tsereteli Exit,

Attendance: Free and open to the public