Meet Dr Geoffery Z. Kohe, Programme Director for the Sports Management pathways. Dr Kohe joined the University of Kent in February 2018. He holds an undergraduate and doctoral degree from the University of Otago (New Zealand), and has previously researched and taught in New Zealand, Australia, Czech Republic, Taiwan and the United Kingdom. His research strengths cover socio-cultural, historical and political aspects of sport, the Olympic movement and sport legacies, national identity and public memory, and sport museums/heritage practices. Recent projects include examinations of sports workers’ welfare, Olympic education programmes, sport heritage governance, and sport mega-event politics. His publications have recently featured in Educational Review; International Review for the Sociology of Sport; Sport, Education & Society; Managing Sport & Leisure; and Leisure Studies. He is an Editorial Board Member and Reviews Editor for Sport in Society, international collaborator with the National Taiwan University of Sport Olympic Museum & Study Centre, the Centre of Olympic Studies (Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona, Spain) and member of the International Sociology of Sport Association and International Olympic Academy Participants Association.
Dr Kohe is an internationally-recognised researcher with a scholarship profile across the Sociology and History of Sport, Sport Management, and Physical Education. He holds substantial research expertise in Olympic studies, with specialisms in educational and participation legacies, Olympic and sport museums/heritage, and sport organisational politics within the Olympic movement. His recent work (Kohe & Collison, 2018; 2019; Koutrou & Kohe, 2021a; 2021b; Kohe, Nehring, Tu, 2021) has focused on global, transnational and local sport and physical activity landscapes; with specific emphasis on stakeholder network formations, collaborative projects development, participant experiences and sector capacity building. International settings for this work have included China, North America, the United Kingdom and wider Europe. In addition to furthering critique of professional and grassroots sport, sport policies and sports work, his research has also contributed insights into cross-sector partnership formations, evidenced cases of best practices and opportunities for knowledge transformation, and informed ongoing discussions about sector resourcing, capacity building and sustainability.
Dr Kohe is co-investigator with Dr Niki Koutrou (University of Bournemouth) on the recent International Olympic Committee Report entitled ‘Reawakening sport and community engagement in a previous Olympic host city: Capitalising on the Athens 2004 Olympic volunteer legacy 17 years on’ (Lausanne: IOC, 2021). Drawing on interviews with strategic sector leaders and professionals within Greece and wider Europe, the project revises understandings of the landscape and interplays between the civil society, volunteering and sport sectors. Amid continued austerity, political change and the enduring effects of Covid-19, Dr Kohe and Dr Koutrou’s work provides contemporary analysis of forces effecting the sector, evidence of best practice, and establishes guidelines for enhancing future mega-event and Olympic volunteering strategies. Prior to this, Dr Kohe co-authored (with Dr Holly Collison, Loughborough University) Sport, Education and Corporatisation: Spaces of connectivity, contestation and creativity (Oxon: Routledge, 2019). The work offers the first interdisciplinary, theoretically informed and cross-sector critique of sport organisation, educational entities and commercial stakeholder relations across an array of global, regional and local contexts. This research continues Dr Kohe’s ongoing interest in organisational relations and politics in the sport sector, and follows previous publications including: High Performance Disability Sport Coaching (Oxon: Routledge) co-edited in 2016 (with Professor Derek Peters); and At the Heart of Sport (Wgtn: NZOC, 2011), the New Zealand Olympic Committee’s centennial history.
Dr Kohe has given keynote lectures in Taiwan and the Czech Republic, and also featured regularly in local, regional and national BBC and KMTV broadcasts on the London 2012 Olympic Games, sport/physical activity participation legacies, and sport governance. Dr Kohe has also served as an advisor for sport museums in Italy, Taiwan and the United Kingdom, and is currently the Director of the country’s National Basketball Heritage Centre (UK).
We asked Dr Kohe, Why Kent? He said:
‘The new BSc Sport Management pathway options for our BSc Sport & Exercise Sciences and BSc Sport & Exercise for Health programmes offers an excellent opportunity for students seeking a broad range of career pathways in the sport, health, and leisure sectors. The pathway provides a suite of exciting modules covering contemporary sport industry, sport marketing, leadership, event management and promotion that will equip students with the necessary professional skills and expertise needed in today’s thriving sport management industry.
Students will learn from knowledgeable sector experts and internationally respected scholars in the field and gain wider knowledge of the challenges and solutions facing the UK, Europe, and wider global sport sectors. Students will also have the possibility to undertaken placements within the pathway, extend their degree with our further year-in-industry option, or be suitably equipped to undertake post-graduate studies across the sport, management, and business domains. We are incredibly excited about introducing this option for our new students and look forward to welcoming you to the School of Sport & Exercise Sciences in the forthcoming year!‘