I like to think of myself mostly as a social scientist broadly defined, but my regular title is Professor of Psychological Sciences at the University of Portland. I’m also happy to have a courtesy appointment in Sociology, and am serving as the Director of the University Core Curriculum. So I get the pleasure to advocate for the liberal arts, and try to build what one of my colleagues calls a “community of thinkers” 9in which I include “thinking fans”).
Here’s the basic background of my academic life: I grew up in the Pacific Northwest (in Seattle), went to Kenyon College in Ohio for a BA in psychology, to Miami University of Ohio for a MS in sports studies (sport psychology & sport sociology), and to the University of Chicago for a MA and PhD in Human Development. During that time I had some formative experiences in sub-Saharan Africa, including a two-year stint with Peace Corps in the Republic of Malawi, and six months of field research in the Republic of Angola. More recently, since joining the faculty at the University of Portland in 2004, I’ve also led a study abroad program in South Africa and spent an academic year as a Fulbright scholar at Mwenge Catholic University in Moshi Tanzania. In between I’ve also tried to apply a comparative lens to inequality in the US, working with youth programs in Chicago and Detroit public housing communities and undertaking research with low and high poverty high schools in the Portland area. I also spent my first sabbatical affiliated with the Institute for the Study of Youth Sports at Michigan State University and with Sport in Society at Northeastern University.
My academic interests over time have mostly revolved around youth development in different community contexts, with a particular focus on the way extracurricular activities–especially sports, and especially soccer–matter at both the individual/psychological and the community/sociological level. At UP I teach courses related to general psychology, developmental psychology, and sport in society, and served for six years as the first chairperson of the Department of Psychological Sciences. In my role as Core Curriculum Director I also try to think at an institutional level about ways of improving learning outcomes for students (in part through the applied social science research that is assessment!).
For a few specifics, here are examples of past scholarly work that might help someone know where I’m coming from:
Probably my favorite area for scholarship is with international sports and development programs (though it is sometimes hard to stay active in this area from a home base of Portland Oregon!). A while ago now I published an early effort to apply an ethnographic lens to SDP, and more recently I’ve published a few brief articles and chapters that offer what is intended to be constructive criticism. Sports is a great tool for engaging people, but it is trickier than it seems to use for international development.
I’ve also spent a lot of time on issues of educational inequality, and my small contribution to that world is to look at the role of extracurricular activities. My first publication in that area is still my most ever cited work, and I’ve also tried to bring a qualitative lens to research on extracurricular inequalities. When people think about addressing educational inequality they rarely think about the extracurriculum — but I think that is a mistake.
And then there is what I call the very social science of soccer, which I tried to articulate in my 2021 book Soccer in Mind. As a couple examples here beyond the book, I really enjoyed writing a scholarly essay about my experience at the World Cup in South Africa in 2010, and another experience writing up research about Portland Thorns fandom — the highest drawing women’s professional sports team in the world. Soccer, as the most global game and one of the most prominent shared cultural forms, offers immense insight into lives and communities around the world.
I have also occasionally tried to use my interests in social science and sports to write for a more general audience. An essay on the psychology of happiness for Oregon Humanities has had a surprisingly enduring popularity, I’ve made sporadic efforts at bringing social science to soccer blogging, and I have a Sports & Ideas micro-blog (and Twitter handle) that I occasionally use as a space for public engagement.