Encourages students to explore new ideas.
Adam S. Beissel, Ph.D., serves as Associate Professor of Sport Leadership and Management at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, a position he has held since 2017. Before joining Miami University, he was a faculty member in the Physical Cultural Studies program at the University of Maryland, College Park. His academic background includes a Ph.D. in Sport Studies from the University of Otago in Dunedin, New Zealand; an MBA in Sport Management from the University of Baltimore and Towson University; and a B.S. in Sport Management from Towson University. Beissel's scholarship centers on the geopolitical economy of global sport, with primary research interests in the political economy of sport mega-events, geopolitics of sport, sport stadiums and urban development, social and economic injustice in collegiate sport, sports labor markets and global athletic migration, and sport, globalization, and the contemporary global economy.
Beissel's peer-reviewed manuscripts have been published in prestigious journals including Sociology of Sport Journal, Soccer & Society, Journal of Sport and Social Issues, Sport in Society, Sport Management Review, Journal of Global Sport Management, International Journal of Sport Policy and Politics, International Journal of Sport Communication, International Journal of Sport Marketing and Sponsorship, and Journal of Intercollegiate Athletics. Key publications include co-editing Critical Perspectives on the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup: Events, Issues, and Controversies (Routledge, 2025) and The 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup: Politics, Representation, and Management (Routledge, 2023). Recent articles feature A tale of two cities: A case-study approach examining the inter-city competitive-bid process for the 2026 FIFA Men’s World Cup (Soccer & Society, 2026, with R. King-White), The quest for authenticity amidst athlete activism and sportswashing: A netnographical study of distant fan communities during the 2022 FIFA Men’s World Cup (Soccer & Society, 2024, with R. Chen and Y. Su), and A New Hope? FIFA 2.0, Women’s Football Strategy, and event bidding for the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup (Soccer & Society, 2023, with V. Postlethwaite, A. Grainger, and J. Brice). He has contributed book chapters to volumes from publishers such as Routledge, Oxford University Press, and Palgrave MacMillan. Beissel presents his research at conferences like the North American Society for the Sociology of Sport, International Sociology of Sport World Congress, and North American Society for Sport Management. He teaches courses including SLM 248: Global Sport Perspectives, SLM 413/513: Sport Economics, and study abroad programs on sport management and culture in New Zealand, England, and Spain. Additionally, he engages in public scholarship through media interviews, op-eds, and podcasts on global sport events.