Rate My Professor Sebastian Potgieter

Dr. Sebastian Potgieter is a Teaching Fellow in the School of Physical Education, Sport and Exercise Sciences at the University of Otago, part of the Sciences Division, where he has worked since 2017. A graduate of Stellenbosch University in South Africa, he completed his BA Honours in 2014 and MA in 2016 before earning his PhD from the University of Otago in 2020. His doctoral dissertation, titled '(Re)Presenting 1981: Narrating the Springbok Rugby Tour of New Zealand,' analyzes the historiographic narratives surrounding this landmark event in New Zealand-South Africa sporting relations. Potgieter's academic career builds on his South African roots and New Zealand-based scholarship, focusing on critical sports studies.

Potgieter specializes in the historiographic analysis of sport and its intersections with postcolonial nationhood, national identity, and mythologies. His research examines how sporting histories are invoked to legitimize modern national narratives, with a particular emphasis on New Zealand's sporting ties to apartheid South Africa. Key publications include 'National Mythscapes and Popular New Zealand Rugby Histories: Representing the 1986 Cavaliers' co-authored with Mark Falcous (International Journal of the History of Sport, 2024), '(Re)Presenting 1981: Narrating the Springbok Rugby Tour of New Zealand' (Journal of Sport History, 2021), 'A Long Shadow: The 1981 Springbok Tour of New Zealand' (Sporting Traditions, 2019), and 'Reflections on Pathways to the Writing of South African Sports History' co-authored with Albert Grundlingh (Sport in Africa, Past and Present, 2020). He has also authored book reviews such as that of Saleem Badat's 'Tennis, Apartheid and Social Justice' (Southern Journal for Contemporary History, 2024) and contributed public-facing articles to Newsroom, including 'Israel's Uncertain Place in International Sport' (2024) and 'What We Tell Ourselves About the Springbok Tour' (2021). Potgieter oversees and teaches papers in sport history and socio-cultural studies, co-supervises PhD candidate Hongxiu Gou and several BSc Honours students, including graduates Nicole Porter (2022) and Madison Poingdestre.