Dean publishes 27th book

John Nauright, dean of the Stephen Poorman College of Business, Information Systems and Human Services at LHU, published his 27th book, Routledge Handbook of Global Sport, on Jan. 20 of this year. The book was published with Sarah Zipp, a professor at Stirling University in Scotland.

Nauright met Zipp through planning a study tour in Europe. From there, Nauright worked with Zipp, mentoring her and collaborating on four other books and journals, making Routledge Handbook of Global Sport their fifth collaboration. Nauright said, “It’s one of those things that’s really exciting when the student begins to outpace the teacher.”

“It [Routledge Handbook of Global Sport],” according to Nauright, “is a sport by sport approach covering what has been written about it[ a sport] and what the sport is about to give the reader an overview of a particular sport.”

The book covers a variety of global sports including, but not limited to: soccer, American football, Australian football and even darts. “It’s [Routledge Handbook of Global Sport] a book for students who have an interest in a sport who may want to do more research on it, but don’t know much about it,” said Nauright.

Through this book and his other books, Nauright said, “I think they[students] will get an understanding of the similarities and differences between different sports and the way sports may resonate in different societies.”

As a kid, Nauright had atlases that he enjoyed reading about the different places around the world. He would also read about the different sports in those places he would read about. As Nauright furthered his education, he studied around the world in places like England and Canada. Today he is a visiting professor at Lomonosov Moscow State University in Russia, University of the West Indies in Barbados and the University of Ghana.

That interest he had as a child and travel as a student and professor led him to the study of global sports and the 27 published books he has today.

Nauright doesn’t plan to stop there, however. Along with Dain TePoel and James Mattern, both of which are sport studies professors here at LHU, Nauright plans to collaborate on a book focusing on the global expansion and organization of baseball. Nauright said, “It’s[the book on baseball] kind of like academics meets Wikipedia with a little bit more depth.” Students who are interested in the topic are welcome to get involved.