Location: Decatur Ballroom
Around the world, futbol/football/soccer fans follow their favorite teams (professional club and national) with a passion that rivals the most fevered religious believers. The high holy days of the men's game, the men's World Cup, is coming to North America (U.S./Mexico/Canada) in June-July. The panel will examine this behavior, how this manifests itself, its sound and sight displays, and its occasional extremes.
SPEAKERS
Dr. Kirk Bowman
Dr. Kirk Bowman, Regents' Entrepreneur and Full Professor, joined the Georgia Tech faculty as an Assistant Professor in the Sam Nunn School of International Affairs in 1998 and was promoted to Associate Professor in 2004 and Professor in 2014. He directs study abroad programs in Argentina, Brazil, Portugal, Spain and Uruguay. A specialist in Latin American politics and development, he is author/editor of six books and numerous journal articles, book chapters, and reference chapters. His current research projects focuses on the intersection of soccer and global politics/society. He has received research support from the National Institutes of Health, the Ford Foundation, the Social Science Research Council, Mr. Jon Wilcox, among others, and was a Fulbright Scholar. He was the University System of Georgia Excellence of Teaching 2007 recipient and the 2008 Carnegie-Case Professor of the Year for the state of Georgia.
Dr. Bowman is the co-founder and director of the international NGO Rise Up & Care (www.riseup.care). Rise Up & Care employs an innovative model of international community development that combines global development research, high-level performance organizations in the global south to transform youth, powerful documentary films by top local directors, and children's books illustrated by local street artists. Bowman co-produced six feature documentary films in Brazil (www.WomenofEarthfilm.com, www.badbirdiemanmovie.com, www.jongofevermovie.com). He has been quoted in press, including The Washington Post, The CSMonitor, Globo, and The National Post (Toronto)
Luis Andres Henao
Luis Andres Henao is a multimedia reporter on the AP’s Global Religion team. He has reported from Alaska, Antarctica and the Amazon -- and most recently, from Cuba, Greenland and Nepal. Before joining the religion team, he was a correspondent in Latin America and the Caribbean for more than a decade and covered the Olympics in Rio and the World Cup in Russia and Qatar. Based in soccer-mad Argentina, he wrote about “The Game of the Century,” the struggle of women soccer players seeking equal rights and the mystery of why tributes were missing for Lionel Messi in his hometown. His favorite player is his son, Luca, who like Messi, was born in Argentina and dreams of becoming the next soccer great.
Professor Vicki Michaelis
Vicki Michaelis is a professor and director of the University of Georgia's Carmical Sports Media Institute. She worked for two decades as a sports journalist, including 12 years as USA TODAY's lead Olympics writer. She covered college football and NBA beats in Miami and Denver early in her sportswriting career. After joining UGA in 2012, she created the six-course Sports Media Certificate, based in the College of Journalism and Mass Communication but open to all UGA undergraduates. She has led UGA student journalists through on-site coverage of Olympic and Paralympic Games as well as the 2023 Women's World Cup for The Associated Press. In preparing students to cover sports, especially major international events, she helps them understand how sports intersect with cultural and social issues. This summer, she'll be guiding student coverage of the 2026 World Cup for both the AP and USA TODAY.
MODERATOR
Dave Schechter
