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Dr. Kiernan Gordon is Associate Professor and Director of the Sport Leadership and Management program within the College of Business. He teaches a variety of courses within the curriculum. Dr. Gordon's line of inquiry examines the role that emotion plays in sport spectators' consumption of sport venues and related products. While his scholarship uses different methods and corresponding frameworks throughout, it contains two, uniting characteristics.

First, his scholarship is 'place-centric'; Gordon examines the role that built and natural environments serve as sites for human engagement in sporting contexts. Second, his scholarship is oriented toward interaction; that is, he is very interested in uncovering the reasons why, and the ways in which, humans interact with one another in, and/or with, various sporting places and spaces. Dr. Gordon's work contributes to sport venue design and management, fan behavior, sport tourism, and the influence of security protocol and related technologies on the sport consumer experience.  

Dr. Gordon has held faculty appointments at Miami University (Ohio) and the University of New Hampshire. He has published in a variety of peer-reviewed journals, including such leading outlets as Sport Management Review, Journal of Sport Management, Journal of Sport & Tourism, and Symbolic Interaction, as well as in the popular press, such as The Hill. Dr. Gordon has also been invited to serve as a guest speaker at various institutions, including Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design, and he has been named a Research Affiliate by the National Center for Spectator Sports Safety and Security (NCS4).

As a long-time men's college basketball coach and administrator, Gordon's experience includes stints at the NCAA Division I, II, III, and NAIA Division II levels. His career coaching highlights include recruiting and aiding in the development of fifteen all-conference performers, three conference tournament MVPs, members of three NCAA Tournament teams, twelve all-academic performers, one All-American and conference player of the year, and serving as the head coach of the South in the annual Ohio Small College All-Star Game (2010). Dr. Gordon also serves as Chair of the National Association of Basketball Coaches' Research Committee.  

Dr. Gordon is currently a member of the following professional organizations: North American Society for Sport Management (NASSM), North American Society for the Sociology of Sport (NASSS), Society for the Study of Symbolic Interactionism (SSSI), and National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC). He is also a founding board member of the Human Architecture and Planning Institute (HAPI).

Dr. Gordon holds a Ph.D. from The Ohio State University with a dual emphasis in sociocultural aspects of sport and sport management, an M.S. from High Point University in sport studies with a dual concentration in sport management and exercise science, and a B.A. from the University of California, Santa Cruz in interpersonal processes of interaction, an independent major consisting of sociology, linguistics, and behavioral neuroscience coursework.          

Selected Peer-Review Publications:                                                                                                                                           

Jakar, G.S. & Gordon, K.O. (2024). Crime in the nominal city: An examination of the relationship between criminal incidents and professional sport venues in Dallas, Texas. International Journal of Sport Management, 25(1), 50-72. 

Jakar, G.S., Gordon, K.O., & He, Q. (2023). The temporal and spatial relationships between professional sport events and reported vehicular crashes: An analysis of Cleveland, Ohio. Sport Management Review, 26(4), 628-648.

Gordon, K.O. & Ramshaw, G. (2023). Making the intangible tangible in sport heritage: A conceptual analysis of sport statuary's spatial fix. Journal of Sport & Tourism, 27(1), 57-75.

Gordon, K.O. (2022). American baseball museums and the politics of meta-narrative. In G. Ramshaw & S. Gammon (Eds.), Baseball and Cultural Heritage (pp. 96-112). University Press of Florida.  

Jakar, G.S. & Gordon, K.O. (2022). Dead spaces: Sport venues and police stops in a major league, upper Midwestern city in the United States. Journal of Sport Management, 36(4), 355-368.

Gordon, K.O. (2018). Escape from ‘Owlcatraz’: An interaction ritual case study of the stadium naming rights agreement between Florida Atlantic University and The GEO Group, Inc. Journal of Issues in Intercollegiate Athletics, 11, 214-236.

Gordon, K.O. & Curry, T.J. (2017). Muir, Roosevelt, and Yosemite National Park as an emergent sacred symbol: An interaction ritual analysis of a camping trip. Symbolic Interaction, 40(2), 247-262.

Gordon, K.O. (2013). Emotion and memory in nostalgia sport tourism: Examining the attraction to postmodern ballparks through an interdisciplinary lens. Journal of Sport & Tourism, 18(3), 217-239.

Selected Popular Press Publications:

Gordon, K. (Nov. 9, 2024). “Sports stadiums can be a winner for the whole community - here’s how”, The Hill. Retrieved From: