Sport enables an interdisciplinary investigation of the social, economic, political and cultural elements of societies as well as the complexities, contradictions and liberations that get to the heart of the human condition. The Sports at Humanities Institute Initiative brings together scholars across The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences and throughout the university and broader community to make meaning out of sport. We do this by: 1) Providing opportunities to learn from each other and create new knowledge in research seminars and public events and, 2) Supporting work that provides solutions to complex cultural, societal and ethical challenges in sports institutions as well as the broader societies that sporting spaces inevitably always reflect and influence.
Sports at Humanities Institute invites nominations for the 2025 community service award
The Sports at Humanities Institute community service award honors people whose work leverages the power of sport to reveal what it means to be human and to bring people together, or whose work presses sports organizations to better serve athletes holistically and in a manner that recognizes their full humanity. To nominate an individual, submit a nomination letter less than 500 words in length to initiative co-director Victoria Jackson via email. The deadline for nominations for the 2025 award is Friday, September 5, 2025.
The winner will be invited to speak in a moderated event (with a reception to follow), awarded a $500 honorarium and honored with a trophy. The inaugural 2024 recipient of the Sports at Humanities Institute community service award was Ramogi Huma.
Submit a Nomination
Highlights
2024 Community Service Award
Olympic Trivia with Olympic Athletes
Contact
Initiative Directors
Victoria Jackson
Victoria Jackson, PhD is clinical associate professor of history in the School of Historical, Philosophical, and Religious Studies and co-director of ASU’s Great Game Lab. A retired professional track and field athlete, NCAA champion, sports historian, and public scholar, Jackson writes for news media, appears in documentary films and TV news shows like 60 Minutes, and contributes to policy work, producing white papers and testifying on Capitol Hill.
Shawn Klein
Shawn E. Klein specializes in ethics and the philosophy of sport. The editor of several books, including "Defining Sport: Conceptions and Borderlines" (Lexington, 2016), he is the general editor of "Studies in the Philosophy of Sport," a book series from Lexington Books. Klein runs SportsEthicist.com and has appeared in the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, USA Today, Boston Globe, Bloomberg News, CNN, CNBC, ESPN, and other media outlets.
Terry Shoemaker
Terry Shoemaker is a qualitative researcher interested in how religion and sport contribute to the human experience and the many relationships within religion and sport. His latest book, Religion and Sports: The Basics, explores these topics, and he teaches at the School of Historical, Philosophical, and Religious Studies at ASU.