Michael Silk is a Professor in the Bournemouth University Business School. His intellectual contribution is interdisciplinary and focuses on the various relationships between sport & physical activity (physical culture), mediated spectacles, inequality and urban spaces. He provides thought leadership for, and impact upon, organisations in the media, sport, heritage sectors and on governments, policy makers and charities. He has received funding from the British Council, the ESRC, the AHRC, the British Academy, Sport England, Women Win, and the Jiangsu Provincial Government (PRC). His current research focusses on urban renewal, social inequalities and disability. He is currently an investigator on the AHRC funded project: Gendered re-presentations of disability: Equality, empowerment and marginalisation in Paralympic media (AH/T006684/1). Past projects as PI include: "Sex work in the context of sports mega events: Examining the impacts of Rio 2016" (ES/N018656/1) collaborating with colleagues in Kent, Toronto & UFRDJ (Brazil) and an AHRC funded project (AH/P003842/1) focussing on the representation and cultural legacy of the Paralympics with colleagues at Loughborough, Bath, Nottingham and Western Ontario. He was a Co-Investigator on the AHRC funded "Romantic Scotland" grant (AH/P009808/1).

He was previously a Reader at the University of Bath and Associate Professor at the University of Maryland. He received his degrees from Southampton, Alberta (Canada) and Otago (NZ). As former Managing Editor of Leisure Studies, an Editorial Board member of a number of journals, and as Editor of the The Routledge Handbook of Physical Culture (2017), he has provided thought leadership across academic disciplines. Has has published over 125 academic articles, has appeared on BBC Radio 5Live, BBC Scotland, Sky News, CBC (Canada), TVNZ (NZ) and has written invited articles for The Guardian, Forbes, The Independent, the Financial Times, The Conversation and El Pais (Madrid, ESP).

Professor Silk welcomes potential PhD students aligned to his research expertise.

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Outreach & engagement

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