Stephen Mosher

Professor, Department of Communication Studies

Stephen Mosher

Stephen Mosher

Stephen Mosher is a professor of sport management and media in the School of Health Sciences and Human Performance. Topics he can discuss include sport ethics and moral development; youth sport and the role of sport in character development; sport heroes and villains; sport and popular culture; sport in the media, particularly movies and literature; and sport and politics, the Olympic Games, the Civil Rights Movement, sport portrayals in the media, and sport in Latin America and the Caribbean. He can discuss such diverse topics as the Olympic Games on film, including Leni Riefenstahl's 'Olympia,' the saga of Pete Rose, the use of patriotic songs in post-9/11 sport settings, sport as a metaphor for war, and sports fanaticism.

Mosher has coached youth sports himself for over 25 years and studies the issues of sport in popular culture. He is currently working on an ethnography of bowling, which discusses how that sport plays a central role in the civic engagement of blue collars workers. In 2001, he wrote a series of columns for ESPN.com on the Little League World Series scandal involving pitcher Danny Almonte, who played despite being two years over the age limit.

Ithaca College Expert: College Football Players Should Be Paid

Research Focus

  • Race and sport
  • Baseball in Latin America
  • Athletes as social activists
  • Sport as cultural expression
  • Class warfare
  • Bowling as a catalyst for social engagement

Education

University of Massachusetts, Amherst
Ph.D., Sport Studies, 1981
Concentrations: Philosophy and Literary Criticism

University of Massachusetts, Amherst
M.S., Physical Education, 1976
Concentrations: Mass Communication and Film Criticism

University of Massachusetts, Amherst
B.A., English and Journalistic Studies, 1971

University of Massachusetts, Amherst
Doctoral Studies, September 1986-May 1987
School of Education, Physical Education Teacher Education