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Michael Mullan

Professor of Physical Education and Sociology

Professor Mullan is an expert on the sociological history of sport. His most recent research on nationalism and sport focuses on ethnicity and the role that sport played and continues to play in the assimilation of groups. In addition, he can address themes of sport, war, and the construction of male identity and contribute to an understanding of the connection between sport and military images.

His publications include:

  • "Sport, Ethnicity and the Reconstruction of the Self: Baseball in America's Internment Camps," The International Journal of the History of Sport, (March, 1999);
  • "Ethnicity and Sport: The Wapato Nippons and Pre-World War II Japanese American Baseball," Journal of Sport History, (Spring, 1999);
  • "The Devolution of the Irish Economy in the 19th Century and the Bifurcation of Irish Sport," in The International Journal of the History of Sport, (August, 1996);
  • "Sport as Institutionalized Charisma," Journal of Sport and Social Issues (August, 1995); and
  • "Opposition, Social Closure, and Sport: The Gaelic Athletic Association in the 19th Century," Sociology of Sport Journal, (1995), which received the "Sociology of Sport Journal Outstanding Article Award" for that year.

Mullan, who received his Ph.D. in sociology from the University of Delaware, M.Ed. from Temple University, and B.A. from the University of California at Berkeley, is also the men's tennis coach at Swarthmore. He is a Ph.D. candidate in history at Temple University.

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