NCID-0973
Yannick Kluch
Assistant Professor
University of Illinois
Education/Degree:
1 Media and Communication Studies (Bowling Green State University)
About
Yannick Kluch (Ph.D., Bowling Green State University) serves as Assistant Professor in the Department of Recreation, Sport and Tourism at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. His research is focused on sport as a vehicle for social change and on eliminating barriers to social justice in sport. Specifically, his areas of expertise include athlete activism, sport policy, human rights, and equity, diversity, and inclusion in global sport. His research has been published in leading sport journals, and Dr. Kluch frequently serves as a consultant on equity/diversity/inclusion issues in sport. In 2020, Dr. Kluch was one of only four U.S. thought leaders appointed to the Team USA Council on Racial & Social Justice by the United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee (USOPC), where he aided a steering committee on athlete protests and demonstrations – work that has led the USOPC to no longer sanction U.S. athletes demonstrating in support of racial and social justice.
Current Work
Dr. Kluch's research focuses on barriers to social justice in the context of sport. Specifically, his research has examined topics such as athletes' use of sport for activist purposes, collegiate athletics administrators with diversity, equity, and inclusion responsibilities driving change within their respective organizational contexts, and allyship among global sport leaders. Dr. Kluch's current projects focus on athlete activism at the high school level (funded by the Spencer Foundation), athletes' use of social media for strategic social justice communication (funded by the Atlantic Coast Conference), and minoritized athletes' leadership development at predominantly white institutions (funded by the Knight Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics). Additional projects examine racial justice activism among white athletes and barriers to racial justice in sport policy, most notably in the context of the International Olympic Committee's controversial Rule 50.
Research Area Keyword(s)
Social Justice, Sport, activism