The Politics of Play: Power, Profit, and Progress Through Sports - Faculty Panel and Lunch
Date(s):
October 23, 2025, 11:00 am - 12:00 pm
Location:
Stephen C. Hall Room 102
Join three Georgia Tech faculty as they talk about the history of sports, sports politics, and sports law on a panel hosted by the John H. Martinson Honors Program. The panel will be on Thursday, October 23rd, 2025 from 11am-12:15pm in Stephen C. Hall room 102.
This event is open to the Georgia Tech community. Come with plenty of questions.
Please fill out the form below to RSVP for the event. Food will be provided.
RSVP via Qualtrics: https://gatech.co1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_9yLGIorwNzp3pfE
Have Questions?
Email Amara Anderson, the John H. Martinson Honors Program coordinator, at aanderson75@gatech.edu.
About the Panelists
Dr. Johnny Smith is the Julius C. "Bud" Shaw Professor of Sports History. Smith's research and teaching explores United States history during the twentieth century. He is especially interested in the history of sports, popular culture, and political culture. His writing has appeared in the Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, The Daily Beast, Slate, ESPN's The Undefeated, Smithsonian Magazine, Reviews in American History, and The American Historian, among others. In 2017, Professor Smith was named a Distinguished Lecturer by the Organization of American Historians. He is also a two-time recipient of the Journal of Sport History's Best Article Award (2009; 2018). He has authored six books, the most of which is The Fight of His Life: Joe Louis's Battle for Freedom During World War II (written with Randy Roberts; forthcoming 2025).
Dr. Kirk Bowman Regents' Entrepreneur, Full Professor and Rise Up & Care Term Chair in Global Development & Identity, joined the Georgia Tech faculty as an Assistant Professor in the Sam Nunn School of International Affairs in 1998 and was promoted to Associate Professor in 2004 and Professor in 2014. He directs study abroad programs in Argentina, Brazil, Portugal, Spain and Uruguay. His current research projects include a book on soccer and global politics and using experimental design to test the effect of local change agents and youth high performance addictions in marginalized neighborhoods of the Global South. Dr. Bowman is the co-founder and director of the international NGO Rise Up & Care (www.riseup.care). Bowman currently leads a Vertically Integrated Project (VIP) at Georgia Tech for students from various majors to participate in global development through documentary film, children's books, and targeted global philanthropy.
Bruce Siegal, JD is a full time IP Sports and Entertainment brand protection and licensing attorney at Greenspoon Marder LLP. Siegal is also a part-time Adjunct Professor at Georgia Tech's Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts with classes surrounding sports law and public policy. With a strong sports business background, Mr. Siegal developed programs to protect the trademark rights of numerous sports clients, including organizing systems to protect the NCAA Final Four and College Football Playoff marks by clearing the marketplace of counterfeit and unlicensed merchandise in coordination with the event organizers, investigators and law enforcement officials. Currently, he serves as Co-Chair for the Entertainment, Arts and Sports Committee of the United States Intellectual Property Alliance, former Chair for the Legal Advisory Committee of the International Collegiate Licensing Association, and past Vice-Chair for the Entertainment and Sports Law Section of the State Bar of Georgia.
