Dr Mark Doidge is currently a Principal Research Fellow and a trustee (Membership Services) for the British Sociological Association (BSA), where is also convenor of the Sport Studies Group He is also Director of the Anti-Discrimination Division of Football Supporters Europe (FSE).

He is an expert in the sociology of European football fan cultures and the author of Football Italia: Italian Football in an Age of Globalization (2015, Bloomsbury Academic) and co-author of Ultras: the passion and performance of contemporary football fandom (2020, Manchester University Press, wtih Kossakovski and Mintert), and Collective Action and Football Fandom (2018, PalgraveMacmillan, with Cleland, Millward and Widdop). Dr Doidge is also co-author of The Short Guide to Sociology (2020, Policy Press, with Saini), and co-editor of Sociologists’ Tales (2015, Policy Press, with Twamley and Scott) and Transforming Sport (2018, Rouledge, with Carter and Burdsey)..

Dr Doidge’s latest research focuses on the role football can play in our understanding of important social issues such as hate crime, climate change and refugees & migration. He has won AHRC funding on footbal and hate crime (an AHRC Network Grant on Football and Hate Crime, and an AHRC UK-Ireland Digitial Humanities Grant on Online Hate). He is also researching the role football can play in communicating about cliamte change. In addition, he researches on how football fans are helping refugees, both through practical support in camps and local communities, and through consciousness raising and fundraising. He is also interested in the role sport more generally can play in helping refugees. He has recently worked in partnership with Brighton Table Tennis Club on a Sport England funded 'Refugee Integration Project' and a British Academy funded project on Football and Refugees. 

My research predominantly focuses on the political and social role of football fans. This includes the positive affect fans can have in challenging discrimination in football, and helping local communities and refugees. This invariably brings fans into conflict with the various regulatory bodies, such as football federations, governments and the police. Understanding the wider political economy of football helps situate these conflicts in their wider context. I supervise PhD students on projects related to political economy of sport, poltiical activism in football, anti-racism and anti-discrimination in sport, and the role sport can play in supporting refugees and migrants.

Mark is interested in supervising anyone with a passion for critically examining sport or fandom. With his expertise and networks across Europe, Mark would love to supervise projects on range of topics around political mobilisation, collective behaviour and community engagement in the world of sport (and football in particular). Topic could include: 

Sport and Leisure in the lives of refugees and asylum seekers

Mental health and fandom

Football fandom across Europe – including ultras, away fan experiences, political movements

Political activism amongst football fans, including anti-racism and anti-discrimination, environmentalism or community engagement.

Sport and climate change

Sport and Hate Crime

I am passionate about the discipline of sociology and I seek to bring this passion to the classroom through research-informed teaching. My style involves having a clear narrative that critically engages with the theoretical and practical aspects of the topic. Where possible, all examples will be contemporary and I use a wide range of videos, case studies and visuals to engage students in a variety of ways. I consistently receive good feedback from students, and have been nominating for teaching awards at Exeter and Brighton.

Critical engagement is central to my teaching. Students should have an enquiring mind and be willing to challenge their own ideas, me, and theoretical concepts.

I actively seek feedback in order to improve my teaching. As an External Examiner at other universities I can see how things are done elsewhere and I try and incorporate these into my own approach.

I teach on a wide range of undergraduate and postgraduate modules related to sociology, social movements, sport, politics, and sports policy. I have also taught at the University of Exeter and St Mary's University College, Twickenham where I taught a range of sociology and sociology of sport modules.