Dr Paul Darby

Overview

Paul Darby joined Ulster University in 2002 having previously held a lectureship at Liverpool Hope University. He was awarded his PhD from Ulster University in 1997. He is currently reader in the sociology of sport and leads the Centre for Sport in Society.

His teaching and research interests lie in the social sciences and history of sport. Alongside almost 90 articles in peer reviewed journals and edited collections, he is author of two research monographs: Gaelic Games, Nationalism and the Irish Diaspora in the United States and Africa, Football and FIFA: Politics, Colonialism and Resistance; and has co-edited two collections on sport and the worldwide Irish diaspora and football related disasters. He is currently working on a co-authored monograph on African transnational football migration and football to be published by Manchester University Press in late 2019.

His research has been funded by the Economic and Social Research Council, the British Academy, the European Union, UNICEF and UK Sport. Paul was editor of the international journal Soccer and Society and currently sits on the editorial board of Soccer and Society, Impumelelo: The interdisciplinary electronic journal of African Sport and Sportsworld: The Journal of global Sport. He has also guest edited special issues of African Historical Review and Sport in Society.

He was a member of the ESRC Peer Review College (2010-2014) and has acted as a peer reviewer for numerous international journals. He is a founding member of the Sport Migration Network hosted at Aalborg University in Denmark. He teaches undergraduate and postgraduate modules across a number of sports related courses and is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.

Research Opportunities