Parthenon Symposium: Women Athletes and Tennessee Trailblazers

Parthenon Symposium: Women Athletes and Tennessee Trailblazers

Join us for a free in-person talk on Tuesday, August 19, at 6 PM at the Parthenon. This in-person Symposium is free and open to the public, RSVP required. It will take place in the Naos on Level 2.

Historian Dr. Mary Ellen Pethel will give us a free talk on trailblazing women college athletes in Tennessee. She’ll be accompanied by guest speaker Renee Schultz, Belmont University’s Associate Athletic Director, who will contribute her perspective as pioneering college soccer player and athletics administrator. RSVP for Free Museum admission for the event.

This talk is inspired by Alan LeQuire’s “Soaring Olympians,” three figures of women athletes dramatically suspended in the Parthenon during the “Monumental Figures” exhibition.

About the topic:

Dr. Pethel will bring us a historical perspective on the accomplishments of pioneering women collegiate athletes in Tennessee. Based on her recent book, Title IX, Pat Summitt, and Tennessee’s Trailblazers: 50 Year, 50 Stories, she’ll give us stories of inspiring individual women who were pioneers in college sports of the last 50 years. As one of the featured athletes in the book, Renee Schultz will add her perspective as both pioneering women’s soccer player and athletic administrator.

About the speakers:

Dr. Mary Ellen Pethel is an author, historian, and associate professor at Belmont University. At Belmont, she is additionally associate director of the Global Honors program, academic director for the Fisk-Belmont Social Justice Collaborative, Belmont Summer Institute with Queen’s University, and University You, a partnership with Metro Nashville Public Schools. She received her Ph.D. in history from Georgia State University, and a post-graduate certificate in Digital Public Humanities from George Mason University.

She has authored five books, including Title IX, Pat Summitt, and Tennessee’s Trailblazers, which won the 2022 Tennessee History Book Award, and Athens of the New South: College Life and the Making of Modern Nashville (2017). Howdy! The Minnie Pearl Story will be published in October 2025. She is additionally the executive director of the digital platform “NashvilleSites.org” which offers free, self-guided, mobile-friendly tours of Nashville. Look for the forthcoming Centennial Park walking tour!

Renee Schultz is the Senior Associate Athletic Director for Student-Athlete Success and Senior Woman Administrator at Belmont University. Now in her 22nd year at Belmont, Schultz has been a champion for student-athletes on and off the field. Her story is one of the fifty profiles in Pethel’s book. Mentored by Belmont legend Betty Wiseman, Renee was part of the second-ever women’s soccer team, and served in leadership roles as team captain, and later as assistant coach, then in key roles in athletic administration.

Shultz holds a B.S. in Sociology and an M.Ed. in Sport Administration from Belmont.

Host or Publisher Nashville Parthenon