I am the author of African Soccerscapes: How a Continent Changed the World’s Game (2010) and of Laduma! Soccer, Politics, and Society in South Africa (2004; updated edition 2010). I have co-edited two collections with Chris Bolsmann: South Africa and the Global Game (2010) and Africa’s World Cup: Essays on Play, Patriotism, Spectatorship, and Urban Space (forthcoming, University of Michigan Press/UKZN Press), and also published many journal articles and chapters in scholarly collections. My interests in social history, gender, and popular culture have inspired new research on community beauty pageants in apartheid South Africa.
I teach graduate and undergraduate courses on Africa, South Africa, and global sport. In 2010 I received the Fintz Award for Teaching Excellence in the Arts and Humanities. In recent years, I helped develop several digital humanities initiatives, including Africa Past and Present – a widely accessed podcast about African history, culture, and politics with Peter Limb; the Footballiscominghome blog; and the Football Scholars Forum, an interdisciplinary web platform for global fútbol scholarship. On the service front, I serve on the editorial boards of the International Journal of African Historical Studies and African Studies, and am book review editor of Soccer and Society.
My radio and TV appearances include: National Public Radio, BBC, France24, Radio France International, SABC, Radio Democracy (Senegal), China Radio International, and TBSeFM (South Korea). I have been interviewed by the New York Times, Washington Post, Time, Los Angeles Times, USA Today, Le Monde, Liberation, Il Messaggero, El Siglo de Europa, Veja and others. In 2010 I was a Fulbright Scholar at the University of KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa. In 2012 I became Director of Digital History Projects for the History Department and Matrix.
