University of Brighton scholars honoured

John Sugden, Professor of the Sociology of Sport in the School of Sport and Service Management, and Professor Alan Tomlinson, Professor of Leisure Studies in the School of Humanities, received the award of NASSS (Research) Fellow at the Society’s annual conference in Ontario.

Alan and John were two of only three of the 22 recipients who are based in British universities, and only one other British institution had an award winner.

Both recently returned from Israel where John gave the opening plenary address to the 23^rd Annual Congress of the European Fair Play Movement, based upon their recently-published book ‘Sport and Peace-Building in Divided Societies: Playing with Enemies’.

Professor John Sugden (left)

Professor Alan Tomlinson

John is also to receive the Honorary Member Award of the International Sociology of Sport Association (ISSA) in Lucerne, Switzerland, in 2018. Alan and John are both former editors of ISSA’s leading international journal, the International Review for the Sociology of Sport.

Commenting on his ISSA award, John said: "I consider it to be a badge of honour for all of those who have shared this mission to ensure that the highest-quality critical sociology of sport will for ever be associated with the University of Brighton."

Between them, Alan – who has pioneered research in the sociology and socio-cultural history of sport throughout his 42-year career at the University of Brighton, and John – who joined Alan and other colleagues at Brighton in 1996 – have put the university at the forefront of worldwide scholarship on the place and profile of sport in contemporary cultures and societies.