Ron Krabill (he/him)

Preferred name: Ron

Professor and Co-Founder, UWB Global Scholars

Director, UW Global Sport Lab

Ron Krabill (he/him)

Preferred name: Ron

Professor and Co-Founder, UWB Global Scholars

Director, UW Global Sport Lab

Education

Ph.D. Sociology and Historical Studies, New School for Social Research
M.A. Historical Studies and Sociology, New School for Social Research
B.A. Communication and Peace and Conflict Studies, Goshen College

Courses

  • BISMCS 333 Media and Communication Studies
  • BIS 313 Issues in Media Studies: Human Rights Public Culture
  • BIS 339 Global Cultural Studies: “Shut Up and Play”? Sports, Media and Politics
  • BIS 403 Washington, D.C., Research Seminar on Human Rights
  • BIS 480 International Study Abroad: The Politics of Soccer in Spain and Beyond
  • BIS 480 International Study Abroad: Leadership and Nation-Building in Rwanda
  • JSIS 200B Sport and Diplomacy

Teaching Interests

My teaching is centered on the idea that the best learning grows out of a diverse intellectual community in interaction, both in and out of the classroom itself, rather than individuals imparting knowledge in a unilateral way. I strongly believe that education is best served through the building of a generative learning community that includes students, faculty and others in a holistic learning experience. In addition to developing such interactions among members of my classes, I also value the impact of community-based learning and scholarship. Ideally, education should serve not only a student’s individual intellectual development and overall well-being, but also the well-being and knowledge-base of the many communities with which each student and the university as a whole are involved.

Research and Scholarship Interests

My scholarship on mass media and politics seeks to expand our understanding of transnational mediascapes as complex forces which shape political life in relevant, sometimes surprising ways. My earlier work was centered on electronic, independent and transnational media and their impact on social life and action (particularly politics – both institutional and extra-institutional) and focused on South Africa as its most significant location. This work has continued to have a particular emphasis on the relationships between media and human rights, not only in South Africa but on a global scale.

 

More recently, I’ve been exploring collaboration and community-based learning in relationship to the concepts of praxis in cultural studies and interdisciplinarity, with a particular interest in international education and the roles of reciprocity and equity in building more just global partnerships.

 

As the inaugural Director of the UW Global Sport Lab, I have been extending these themes into an examination of global sport as a cultural phenomenon through which we can learn a great deal about the transnational forces that shape our world and how people make meaning of their lives. The Global Sport Lab is becoming a hub of research, teaching, and civic engagement around these themes for faculty and students across the UW and beyond.

  • Feminist Interventions in Participatory Media:  Pedagogy, Publics, Practice.  Co-edited with L. Berliner.  Routledge, 2018.
  • Starring Mandela & Cosby:  Media and the End(s) of Apartheid. University of Chicago Press, 2010.
  • “Anti-Fascist, Anti-Racist, Always Cascadia: The Politics of the Most Influential Football Rivalry in the United States and Canada” (w/ S. Hurst), Football(s): Histoire, Culture, Économie, Société (in French), forthcoming.
  • “The Global Scholars Dilemma: An Imperfect Decolonial Intervention” (w/ K.M. Brinschwitz, B. Gardner, and S.M. Ramirez), in Dialogues on Decolonizing the University: Racialized Gender Transnational Learning, edited by A. Mahali & S. Tate, London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2025.
  • “We Have the Tools We’ve Been Waiting For: Centering Feminist Media Pedagogies in a Time of Uncertainty” (with L. Berliner) in Feminist Interventions in Participatory Media:  Pedagogy, Publics, Practice, edited by R. Krabill and L. Berliner, London: Routledge, 2018.
  • “Teaching Ferguson: Can #BlackLivesMatter in the Neoliberal University” (with S. Dowling & M. Johnson) Rethinking Marxism 28(2), 2016:  295-305.
  • “Graduate Mentoring Against Common Sense” in Collaborative Futures: Critical Reflections on Publicly Active Graduate Education, edited by A. Gilvin, G. M. Roberts, and C. Martin, Syracuse: The Graduate School Press of Syracuse University, 2012.
  • Inaugural University of Washington Distinguished Teaching Award for Teams (w/ N. Dyba, B. Gardner, E. Navarijo & S. Ramirez) for the UWB Global Scholars Program, University of Washington, 2023
  • Connected Learning Excellence Award (w/ N. Dyba, B. Gardner, & E. Navarijo) for the UWB Global Scholars Program, University of Washington Bothell, 2021-2022.
  • Worthington Excellence in Scholarly and Creative Activities Award (w/ B. Rosenberg & E. Thomas) to create the Initiative for Community-Based Learning & Scholarship, University of Washington Bothell, 2006-2008
  • Distinguished Teaching Award, University of Washington, 2006
  • Worthington Distinguished Scholar Award, University of Washington Bothell, 2004
  • “Five Ways to Watch the World Cup,” invited lecture presented to Town Hall Seattle and the UW Lecture Series in Seattle, Washington, May 2026.
  • “Introducing the Global Sport Lab,” invited keynote presented to the Community College Master Teacher’s Institute in Seattle, Washington, July 2025.
  • “Global Sport and Development” (w/ B. Gardner), invited two-day seminar presented to the African Leadership University, Rwanda, March 2024.
  • “Global Sport and Diplomacy in a Mediated World,” invited keynote presented to the University of Johannesburg, South Africa, February 2024.
  • “Reimagining Global Citizenship and International Education,” (w/ B. Gardner and A. Taranath) plenary session presented to the annual Innovative Practices and Pedagogies for Teaching Undergraduate International Development Studies workshop, held online through Indiana University, March 2022.
  • “Universal Design, Radical Reciprocity, and Global Citizenship,” closing plenary address presented to “Global Education for All: Renewing Our Vision,” the 50th Anniversary Celebration and Future Visioning Conference of Goshen College’s Study-Service Term, Goshen, Indiana, March 2019.
  • “Taking Praxis Seriously: Testing the Limits of Praxis and the University” (w/ S. Harewood), keynote presented to the International Conference on Cultural Studies and Education in Vancouver, Canada, May 2017.
  • “Beyond the Bright Shiny New Thing,” TED talk presented to the TEDx Seattle conference, “Convening Community Through Social Technologies:  Stories from Puget Sound to Cape Town,” April 2010.
  • “Human Rights, New Media and International Education,” keynote address presented to the annual Northwest International Education Association conference in Bothell, Washington, May 2009.
  • “Uniters, Dividers & Deciders:  Media and Politics Beyond the 2006 Elections,” Choice Words: the UW Bothell Distinguished Faculty Lecture, 2006.