About
Research
Email: michael.hobson@stmarys.ac.uk
Tel: 020 8240 4135
Biography
Michael is a senior lecturer teaching Sociology of Sport and Sport Development across a number of degrees at St Mary's. Michael has a PhD from Loughborough University, which explored the impact of social class on students studying sports degrees. He also works closely with the university's widening participation departments and race equity networks to establish events such as rep your flag, and weekly gym and study support sessions for commuter students, as part of the university calendar. Furthermore, Michael has volunteered for numerous sports initiatives working with vulnerable and at risk young people.
Research
Research profile
Michael is an early-career researcher, who was awarded his Phd from Loughborough University in 2021. Currently, Michael is publishing research exploring the intersections of social class, race, and ability in students studying sports degrees. Michael has recently signed a contract with Routledge to edit the book Social Class, Physical Education, and Community Sport, to be published in 2025 with Dr Stuart Whigham and Dr Izram Chaudry. A collection of theoretical lenses to explore case-studies, of the impact of social class on sports participation in austerity Britain and beyond.
Michael is also interested in how social class interacts with other aspects of identity, such as race, gender and disability, and is particularly interested in initiatives which target young people from low-income backgrounds, such as the Department for Education's Holidays Activities and food (HAF) scheme.
Areas of research supervision
- the sociology of physical education, sport & physical activity
- sociological studies of social class in sport and education
- sociological studies of race in sport and education.
Publications
Edited books
- Hobson M, Whigham, S. & Chaudry, I (due 2025). Social class, physical education, and community sport. Routledge, London.
Book chapters
- Hobson, M. (2023). ‘Pogba x Stormzy’ and the Politics of Race and Representation: An Introduction to Stuart Hall and British Cultural Studies. In Critical Issues in Football (pp. 186-196) Routledge.
- Hobson M. R, & Whigham, S. (2021). Reflections on Redressing Racial Inequalities, When Teaching Race in the Sociology of Sport and Physical Education. In Doing Equity and Diversity for Success in Higher Education: Redressing Structural Inequalities in the Academy (pp. 241-248) Cham: Springer International Publishing.
- Hobson M, & Whigham, S. (2018). White privilege, empathy and alterity in higher education - Teaching about race and racism in the sociology of PE and sport. Dismantling race in higher education: Racism, whiteness and decolonising the academy, 195-213.
Academic journal papers
- Hobson M. R, Sandford, R, Stirrup, J, & Wiltshire, G (Under Review) Social class, employability and mobilisation of capital in Physical Education-related undergraduate programmes. European Physical Education Review.
- Hobson M. R, Sandford, R., Stirrup, J, & Wiltshire, G. (2022) Social class and the cultivation of capital: undergraduate PE students’ socialisation in sport and physical activity. Sport, Education and Society, 1-15.
- Whigham S, Hobson, M, Batten J, & White, A. J. (2020) Reproduction in physical education, society and culture: the physical education curriculum and stratification of social class in England. Sport, Education and Society, 25(5), 493-506.
- White A, & Hobson M. (2017) Teachers' stories: physical education teachers' constructions and experiences of masculinity within secondary school physical education. Sport, Education and Society, 22(8), 905-918.
- Hobson M. R, McDonagh, C, Healy, M. (Under Review). A gown called malice: undergraduate PE students’ belonging in university, social-class and race. Sport in Society.