Professor Andy Smith

Profile

Biography

Andy Smith is Professor of Sport and Physical Activity and member of the senior management team in the Department of Sport and Physical Activity.

Research Interests

Andy’s research focuses on the links between sport, physical activity and (mental) health, youth sport, sport policy and development, and social and health inequalities from a sociological perspective. He is author of The Routledge Handbook of Youth Sport (with Ken Green, 2016 and 2018), Doing Real World Research in Sports Studies (with Ivan Waddington, 2014), Sport Policy and Development (with Daniel Bloyce, 2010) and An Introduction to Drugs in Sport (with Ivan Waddington, 2009), all published by Routledge.

Andy’s research on sport, education mental health has informed the work of community and professional sport and health organisations, the UK Select Committee’s Suicide Prevention report (2017), Baroness Tanni Grey-Thompson’s MBE Duty of Care in Sport Review (2017), and the receipt in 2016 of the Outstanding Contribution to the Local Community award at the Times Higher Education Awards.

Teaching

Andy manages the undergraduate sports development, management and coaching programmes. Andy is also Programme Leader for the MSc Sport, Physical Activity and Mental Health.

• Sport policy, sports development and figurational sociology
• We Don’t Need No Education? Exploring the Educational Experiences of Young Footballers
• Education, Physical Education and Physical Activity Promotion
• The sociology of sports work, emotions and mental health: scoping the field and future directions.
• A political spectator sport or policy priority? A review of sport, physical activity and public mental health policy