Guy Harrison

Harrison’s research investigates issues of diversity, equity, and inclusion in the electronic media industry through critical and cultural studies lenses. His scholarship to this point has focused on the treatment of women working in sportscasting. This work culminated in his upcoming book, On the Sidelines: Gendered Neoliberalism and the American Female Sportscaster (University of Nebraska Press, 2021).

On the Sidelines uses contemporary feminist theory to examine our culture’s assumptions of women sportscasters and the real-life consequences of those assumptions on women working in the industry. His work on this subject has been previously published in such academic journals as Feminist Media Studies and Critical Studies in Media Communication with other work featured in Social Media and Society and The Howard Journal of Communication. Harrison is currently exploring the experiences of Black women newscasters and is also launching a quantitative inquiry into sports fans’ electronic media consumption habits and preferences.

Harrison is the inaugural director of the Alan and Wendy Wilson Communication and Leadership Academy. Prior to joining the University of Tennessee, Harrison was an assistant professor of telecommunication studies at Youngstown State University for three years, where his teaching primarily focused on the business and practice of sports broadcasting. He has served on the executive board of the North American Society for the Sociology of Sport and the editorial board of Communication and Sport. He is also vice chair of the board of directors for the International Association for Communication and Sport, where he will a two-year term as its chair beginning in 2027.