Presented by the Social Innovation Research Institute and Sport Innovation Research Group at Swinburne University of Technology.

Join acclaimed sports writers Jessica Luther and Kavitha A. Davidson as they discuss their forthcoming book: Loving Sports When They Don't Love You Back: Dilemmas of the Modern Fan that tackles the most pressing issues in sports, why they matter, and how we can do better.

The conversation will focus on several issues that complicate the sports fan experience. that are covered in the book such as: watching high contact sports given what we know about brain trauma, supporting sports and teams who demonstrate anti-LGBTQ+ values, cheering for athletes who are accused of domestic violence and how to embrace the inherent political nature of sports. 

The discussion will relate some of the research and theories the book touches on back to sports fan culture in Australia. Sporting organisations, marketers, managers and media will appreciate the focus on what further research is needed to understand their fans and address some of these issues, particularly as sports adapt their fan engagement strategies during the COVID-19 pandemic.

This event, co-hosted by Dr Kasey Symons and Rana Hussain, with special guest Dr Ryan Storr in conversation with Jessica and Kavitha. A short Q&A with attendees will follow the discussion.
 

SPEAKERS

Jessica Luther is a freelance journalist whose work has appeared in Sports Illustrated, ESPN The Magazine, the New York Times Magazine, Texas Monthly, Huffington Post, BuzzFeed, and Vice Sports, among others. She is the author of Unsportsmanlike Conduct: College Football and the Politics of Rape and has written extensively on the intersection of sports and violence off the field.

Kavitha A. Davidson is a sportswriter and host of The Lead, an in-depth daily sports news podcast produced by  The  Athletic. She is on the board of directors at the Yogi Berra Museum and Learning Center. She was a writer with ESPNW and ESPN The Magazine and a sports columnist at Bloomberg covering the intersections of sports and society,  culture, politics,  race,  gender,  and business.  Her work has also appeared in NBC THINK, the Guardian, and Rolling Stone.

Rana Hussain is a Diversity and Inclusion leader making important inroads into Australian sporting culture and the community at large. One of a handful of women of color working in the Australian Football League, Hussain is a pioneer and a passionate advocate for social inclusion and reducing discrimination through the vehicle of sports and media. Hussain’s desire to see more diversity in both media and sport sees her freelance writing, as well as podcasting and broadcasting for the ABC.

Dr Kasey Symons is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Swinburne's Sport Innovation Research Group and works across research projects focussed on sport and social impact, sports fan culture and sport and gender. Symons is the Social Media Editor for the North American based Sports Literature Association and is a sports writer and co-founder of the women in sport collective Siren.

Dr Ryan Storr is the academic course advisor and lecturer in Sport Development at Western Sydney University. His research focuses on diversity and inclusion in sporting contexts, with a specific focus on LGBT+ inclusion, and his research is discussed and featured in a range of media outlets . He is also the co-founder and vice president of Proud 2 Play, a LGBT+ sport charity based in Melbourne.