Jacco van Sterkenburg works as an Endowed Professor “‘Race, Inclusion and Communication, specifically in relation to Football and Media” in the Department of Media & Communication at Erasmus University. He obtained his PhD at the Humanities faculty of Utrecht University in 2011. In addition, Jacco has an MA (Drs.) degree in Psychology at Utrecht University with a specialization in Cross-cultural Psychology. For the past years, Jacco Van Sterkenburg’s research has focused in particular on the following topics: 

• Football and racism in a broad sense, including media, leadership, professional and recreational sports/football

• Media, Inclusion and Diversity

• Race, ethnicity, gender, whiteness in sports media, sport leadership and sport coaching, in an internationally comparative perspective 

• The Paralympics on television 

Jacco’s research has gained recognition inside and outside academia. This is evident from academic awards and grants such as the NWO Vidi grant for a 5-year project on race/ethnicity and whiteness in mediated football (2018-2023), National Science Agenda (NWA) and Erasmus + grants (co-applicant) on race and gender in sport media and in football leadership across European football, FIFA and UEFA scholarships, and KNAW and various Erasmus University Rotterdam grants. He has publications in books (e.g. on sport and race/ethnicity, with Routledge) and peer-refereed journals such as Media Culture & Society, European Journal of Cultural Studies, Language and Intercultural Communication, Communication and Sport, Journal of Sport and Social Issues, International Review for the Sociology of Sport, and Soccer & Society. He has participated in advisory committees, popular fora, debates, and radio and TV programs. Moreover, Jacco acts as a supervisor (‘co-promotor’) of six PhD candidates and has been a visiting faculty at Leeds Beckett University, Roehampton University, Brunel University (London), University of Copenhagen, and a Visiting Professor at Victoria University Melbourne (Australia, January 2018).

Currently, Jacco van Sterkenburg is the leader of the VIDI project “How racist is football and do audiences react?”. In addition, he is also a Guest Researcher at Mulier Institute; Associate Editor of the peer-refereed journal Communication and Sport; Editorial board member of diverse academic journals; and one of the twelve Advisory Board Members of the International Sociology of Sport Association (ISSA) (2016-2023).

Jacco’s teaching focuses on intercultural communication, racism and inclusion, research methods, sociology of sport and football, media and diversity, audience reception research and theory, politics of representation. He holds the Senior Qualification for Teaching (SKO) and acts as the BA-1 coordinator of the International Bachelor Communication and Media (IBCoM) at Erasmus University Rotterdam.