History Professor Wins National Book Prize

Brian McGowan, an assistant professor in the Department of History, along with his collaborator, Michael Gennaro, from Seminole State College, have won the 2024 North American Society for Sports History Best Anthology Award for their collection Sport and Protest in the Black Atlantic.

Awarded to “honor outstanding research and writing,” this award recognizes the collective effort of the contributors as well as the editors. The collection includes contributors from four continents and six countries.

Taking a broad approach to how sports have been used to further social causes across the Atlantic world, the collection brings together scholarship that centers the actions of individuals who used sports to bring about social justice. The book covers sports as diverse as baseball, track and weightlifting, and covers more than half a dozen countries.

“This award,” says History Department Chair Caree Banton, “shows that the broader scholarly community appreciates the transnational approach taken by the editors.”

McGowan teaches American and African American history. Previously, he served as the McIntosh Endowed Professor of Liberal Arts in the Department of History at Grambling State University. He writes about Historically Black Colleges and Universities and student activism in higher education.

This story also appeared in the University of Arkansas News publication.