Sports and Politics

Speakers for this event

• Adriana Novoa

  Adriana Novoa

  Adriana Novoa received her BA in History from the University of Buenos Aires, Argentina. She did graduate work at the Instituto Di Tella, and under the supervision of Torcuato di Tella, before going to the University of California, San Diego, where she completed her MA and PhD in Latin American History. She is a cultural historian whose specialty is science in Latin America, and with Alex Levine she has written two books about Darwinism in Argentina: From Man to Ape: Darwinism in Argentina, 1870 1920 (University of Chicago Press) and ¡Darwinistas! The Construction of Evolutionary Thought in Nineteenth-Century Argentina (Brill). She is currently completing another manuscript on this topic, which treats the politics of evolutionism and its relationship to gender and race: From Virile to Sterile: Masculinity and National Identity in Argentina, 1850-1910. Dr. Novoa’s articles have been published in Journal of Latin American Studies, Science in Context, The Latinoamericanist, Cuban Studies, and Revista Hispánica Moderna, among others. Her classes deal with cultural conflict and identity formation in post-independence Latin America.

• Amy Bass

  Amy Bass

  Amy Bass is a professor of sport studies, where her interests focus on sport, culture, and politics, and chair of the division of social science and communication. She received a PhD with distinction in history with a comparative in cultural studies from Stony Brook University and did her undergraduate work at Bates College. Her first book, Not the Triumph but the Struggle: The 1968 Olympic Games and the Making of the Black Athlete, is considered a standard-bearer for those interested in studying sport from a cultural perspective. Her followup, In the Game, solidified that reputation. Her third book, Those About Him Remained Silent: the Battle over W.E.B. Du Bois, received Honorable Mention from the National Council on Public History. Her most recent work, ONE GOAL: A Coach, A Team, and the Game That Brought a Divided Town Together, was named a best book of 2018 by the Boston Globe and Library Journal, and was featured on the Today Show, NPR’s “The Takeaway,” “Midday,” “Under the Radar,” and “Only a Game,” and in Sports Illustrated and ESPN’s The Undefeated, as well as other national media. It has been optioned by Netflix. In its starred review of the book, Kirkus called ONE GOAL “an edifying and adrenaline-charged tale,” while the Wall Street Journal declared it “the perfect parable for our time,” and the Globe & Mail dubbed it “magnificent and significant.”   Bass edits her own series, “Sporting,” for Temple University Press. In mainstream media, she has written for Slate, Salon, and The Christian Century, and is a frequent contributor for CNN, both in print and in studio, and worked across eight Olympic Games for NBC Sports, winning an Emmy Award for Live Event Turnaround at the London Olympic Games.

• Bernhard Welten

  Bernhard Welten

  Born in 1966, Mr. Welten is Attorney at law. He graduated from the University of Bern, Switzerland in 1995 and finished Duke Law School, Durham, NC, the USA in 1999. He is founder and partner of the law firm KanzleiWelten, Berne. He speaks German, English, Italian, French, and has a basic understanding of Spanish. Mr Welten is a Court of Arbitration for Sports (CAS) arbitrator in international sports law cases; he experienced over 120 cases as sole or party appointed arbitrator respectively president of the panel. In February 2018 he was a member of the CAS ad hoc Panel at the Winter Olympic Games in South Korea. In 2020 Mr. Welten was named as President of the Association of Internationale de Boxe Amateure (AIBA) Ethics Commission. He also serves on the License Commission for Swiss Football League and has served on the Fédération Internationale de Gymnastique disciplinary commission, the Swiss Olympic Association Anti-doping Commission and the Swiss Cycling doping sanctioning commission. He is a member of the Bernese, Zurich, and Swiss Bar Association, Union International des Avocats, International Bar Association, Associations Suisse de l’Arbitrage (ASA), Court of Arbitration for Sport, and Rotary.

• Brahim KAS

  Brahim KAS

  Brahim KAS is a doctor of political science, geopolitologist, and specialist of the Middle East and North Africa, particularly Algeria and Tunisia where he was recently invited to a conference at the Dutch Embassy in Tunis in partnership with the Global Center on Cooperative Security. His doctoral thesis at the University of Paris Cité (Former Paris 5 Descartes) is on the topic "Saudi Arabia facing internal and geopolitical challenges: Vision 2030 and the geopolitics of sport to rethink the country". Brahim participated in the promotion of the Mediterranean Games 2022 organized in Algeria in collaboration with Mohamed Derouaz, Commissioner for the Games and appointed by the President of the Algerian Republic Abdelmajid Tebboune. His latest papers published in the daily Liberté Algérie (Freedom Algeria), "The sport to seal the Algerian-French reconciliation?", and the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation, "The Geopolitics of Sport in North Africa: From the diplomacy of briefcases to that of Sneakers", show the link between sport and politics. Brahim is also working on a book project about the geopolitics of sport in the Arab world.

• Lee H. Igel

  Lee H. Igel

  Lee H. Igel is a professor at the NYU Tisch Institute for Global Sport. His work focuses on how sports impacts business and society. For the past decade, Igel has headed an NYU initiative with the United States Conference of Mayors that studies sports in cities across the country. This partnership has produced more than 200 research and consulting projects, all aimed at improving social and economic growth through sports-led development. The findings are shared with leaders in municipalities, sports leagues, businesses, and non-profit organizations. Since joining the NYU faculty in 2004, Igel has designed and taught more than thirty different courses in graduate and undergraduate programs. His teaching includes courses in organizational behavior, consumer behavior, applied research, consulting capstone, and management strategies. He has led global field intensives at NYU sites in London and Berlin. In addition to teaching, Igel collaborates on special projects at NYU campuses in New York and Abu Dhabi. These projects involve hosting forums for decision-makers, thought leaders, and the public to discuss issues of national and international interest. He has served as an NYU Global Research Institute fellow in Tel Aviv, where he explores ways that the city's startup ecosystem can promote social impact, economic development, and regional cooperation. Igel is also an associate in the Medical Ethics division at NYU Langone Health, contributing to a team that studies and provides policy guidance on organizational, cultural, and moral issues across healthcare. Before joining NYU, Igel oversaw integrated health programs for senior executives, elite athletes, and celebrity entertainers at La Palestra in New York City. He began his career in sports medicine and player development in major league professional and top-level amateur sports, drawing on a bachelor's degree in physiology and a master's degree in counseling. He holds a doctorate in industrial/organizational psychology. Igel is often interviewed by global media outlets to provide context on news about business and social issues in sports. His insights appear in writing as a contributor to Forbes and in articles for major news, industry, and scientific publications. He also writes longer profiles about the decisions that major sports leagues, teams, and executives make to support their fans, employees, partners, and communities.

• Robert Sattin

  Robert Sattin

  Robert Sattin, President of The Appleton Group, Lawyer - After over 33 years in the private practice of law in Hartford, CT, Bob came to St. Petersburg where he spent 8 years as the president of The Appleton Group, which developed and ran a network of over 270 law and accounting firms located in 100 countries. In that position, Bob not only interacted with member firms around the world, but also led semi-annual conferences in Europe, N. America, S. America and Asia.