Shaun Anderson
Associate Professor & Chair of Communication Studies
Biography
His first book, The Black Athlete Revolt: The Sport Justice Movement in the Age of #BlackLivesMatter (Rowman and Littlefield, 2023) examines the revitalization of athlete activism since the BLM movement began. Further it explores how athletes have shifted their activism from protest to conversations on policy reform. He is currently working on his second book, Sport for the Global Good: Towards a Theory of Social Responsibility (Oxford University Press, anticipated publication 2024) which will provide a blueprint on how sport organizations develop, implement, and evaluate the success of their social responsibility initiatives. His work on sport and social responsibility has been published in top academic journals including the Psychology of Popular Culture, Communication and Sport, and the International Journal of Communication and Sport. His expertise has also been featured in the Atlanta-Journal Constitution, HuffPost, and Black Enterprise Magazine.
Education
University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff
B.A.
Mass Communication
2005
Arkansas State University
M.S.
Mass Communication
2007
West Virginia University
Ph.D.
Organizational Communication
2016
Social
Areas of Expertise
Industry Expertise
Accomplishments
Certified Anti-Defamation League - A World of Difference - Trainer
This training certification empowers me to train organizations on anti-bias, diversity and inclusion, and intergroup relations issues to help facilitate the amelioration of prejudice and discrimination.
Affiliations
- National Communication Association
- International Communication Association
- Eastern Communication Association
- North American Society for the Sociology of Sport
- 100 Black Men of Los Angeles
- Anti-Defamation League
- Association for Business Communication
- Western States Communication Association
Media Appearances
"It's dehumanizing": The toxic effects of "stick to sports" culture/Oklahoma
The Norman Transcript.com online
2020-06-06
“When you think about sport as a whole, you’re talking about people or fans who want to break away from societal norms and lose themselves within this game or teams they’re fans of,” Anderson said. “When you have these black athletes who are then told to ‘stick to’ entertaining us, ‘just be something for us, or we’ll throw you away,’ in a way, it’s a slap in the face to who they are as a person and to their profession.” Shaun Anderson
Organizational Crisis and Brand Management during COVID-19
The Center for Sports Communication and Media Virtual Town Hall Series online
2020-06-06
A conversation topic that was originally conceived at the outset of the coronavirus pandemic, recent events related to the death of George Floyd and the resulting protests underscore the volatility of social issues and the ways athletes and leagues comment publicly about race and racism, some obviously more genuinely than others. This conversation addressed three broad areas of concern. 1) how do sports organizations serve the community when they cannot play; 2) what do sports organizations and athletes say about potentially returning to competition; 3) what is sport's role acknowledging the need for and facilitating meaningful social change? Panelists for this event include: Shaun Anderson, professor at Loyola Marymount University Lance Blanks, former professional athlete and NBA executive, currently a basketball analyst for the Longhorn Network Natalie Brown-Devlin, professor in the Stan Richards School of Advertising and Public Relations at UT_Austin's Moody College of Communication. Karen Hartman, professor at Idaho State University Mark Pannes, CEO of the Vancouver Whitecaps CSCM Director Michael Butterworth moderated the event, which was recorded on June 11, 2020.
Sports and Racial Justice and the recent athlete protests; Where do we go from here?
KQED Newsroom online
2020-08-28
Dr. Shaun M. Anderson, Assistant Professor in Communication Studies, and Faculty Advisor for the Institute for Business Ethics and Sustainability, was interviewed by KQED Newsroom, regarding Sports and Racial Justice and the recent athlete protests and where we go from here?
