Daniel Burdsey

My research involves sociological, cultural and geographical analyses of race, ethnicity and popular culture. It is linked fundamentally by its central theme of qualitative observational research on ethnicities as lived in public cultures/spaces, and comprises explorations and critiques of the spatial dimensions of racialised inequality and resistance. My work emphasises notions of theoretical innovation, empirical originality and sociological intervention.

My research interests can be divided into four main areas:

 - Theorising race and racism in football, with particular focus on connecting ideas around Empire, de/coloniality, racialised identities and anti-racist resistance

- Black British leisure, musical and sonic cultures and spaces

- The experiences of British Asians in sport and leisure

- Social, cultural and geographical aspects of the contemporary English seaside and coast, especially the connections between race, whiteness, im/migration and ‘new’ spaces of multiculture

I have written / (co-)edited eight books: British Asians and Football: Culture, Identity, Exclusion (Routledge, 2007); Race, Ethnicity and Football: Persisting Debates and Emergent Issues (Routledge, 2011); Coastal Cultures: Liminality and Leisure (Leisure Studies Association, 2014); Sport and South Asian Diasporas: Playing Through Time and Space (Routledge, 2014); Race, Place and the Seaside: Postcards from the Edge (Palgrave Macmillan, 2016); Transforming Sport: Knowledges, Practices and Structures (Routledge, 2018); Racism and English Football: For Club and Country (Routledge, 2021); and Leisure, Racism, and National Populist Politics (Routledge, 2021).

I joined the University of Brighton in 2003, and I am a Reader and Associate Dean (Research and Knowledge Exchange) in the School of Sport and Health Sciences. I am also an Associate Professor (status only) in the Faculty of Kinesiology and Physical Education at the University of Toronto. 

I have a PhD in Sociology (Brunel University, 2004), an MA (Distinction) in Sociology of Sport (University of Leicester, 1999) and an Upper Second Class BSc (Hons) in Sport and Recreation Studies (University of Birmingham, 1998). 

I am Associate Editor of Sociology of Sport Journal and a member of the editorial board of International Review for the Sociology of Sport.

Engagement with non-academic publics is central to my scholarly work. During the late 1990s I was a member of the Leicester City FC Anti-Racist Task Force which initiated the Foxes Against Racism project. I have undertaken research for various organisations, including Albion in the Community, the FA Premier League and the Football Foundation, and I was an invited international expert for the ERASMUS+ BRISWA (Ball Rolls In the Same Way for All) anti-racism project. I have contributed essays to The Conversation, and EUROPP and Democratic Audit blogs. I have given invited talks at the National Maritime Museum, Five Leaves bookshop in Nottingham and ONCA Gallery in Brighton. I have been interviewed about my research on BBC Radio 4, BBC Five Live and BBC Asian Network.

I am interested in supervising doctoral students in all areas related to my research interests in sociological, cultural and geographical analyses of race, ethnicity and popular culture. In particular, my work addresses: theorising race and racism in football, with particular focus on connecting ideas around Empire, de/coloniality, racialised identities and anti-racist resistance; Black British leisure, musical and sonic cultures and spaces; the experiences of British Asians in sport and leisure; and social, cultural and geographical aspects of the contemporary English seaside and coast, especially the connections between race, whiteness, migration and ‘new’ spaces of multiculture;

My current PhD students are undertaking research on the experiences of bisexual women in sport, Islam and the 2022 men's FIFA World Cup in Qatar, and tourism in post-Communist Romania. 

I am an enthusiastic and passionate educator, and I like to bring to the classroom the same values that underpin my research: the pursuit of social justice; the inclusion of marginalised voices and perspectives; a critical sociological standpoint; and the means to challenge dominant institutions, structures and orthodoxies. I try to make my teaching relevant and timely, paying attention to local issues alongside a global perspective. At the moment I teach Sport and Social Theory, Power and Politics in Sport, and Racism in Sport and Popular Culture modules.