Edward Hall is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Sport, Exercise and Rehabilitation at Northumbria University. Edward is the founder of the think-tank Sociological Innovations in Sport Exchange (SiS-X), which brings together leading industry figures and two decades of research and knowledge exchange to forge novel connections between theory and practice. This and Edward’s wider research, education and consultancy work has had a sustained impact on sport policy and the delivery of workforce development for professional practitioners, transforming the practice of thousands of coaches, officials, educators, and leaders, which has benefitted tens of thousands of athletes around the globe. He has led and contributed to funded and commissioned research across multiple national and international sports and coaching contexts (e.g., football, rugby, athletics etc.), publishing his findings in leading empirical and methodological journals and books. Edward has also translated his novel sociological and ethnographic research to benefit the learning, development, wellbeing and performance of numerous stakeholders, in partnership with globally leading governing organisations, bodies and teams (e.g., UEFA, Scottish Rugby, Australian Sport Commission, Gaelic Athletics Association etc.). His work has, and continues to, generate transformational change in policy and practice across major providers of professional workforce preparation, training and development in sport. Recently, Edward led a distinguished REF2021 Impact Case Study, which highlighted his novel contributions to international coach education, as well as his ongoing work as a personal mentor and advisor to some of the world’s leading coaches, managers, leaders, policy architects, and coach educators. His current clients include international governing organisations, high-performing international teams and domestic clubs, and high-profile leaders, coaches and associated performance services. He regularly contributes to coach education internationally as an invited speaker including on various UKCC Level 4 courses across multiple sports, and he remains the only sociologist to be employed as a core mentor by the Premier League’s Elite Coach Accreditation and Elite Heads of Coaching Schemes.        

At Northumbria, Edward leads a vibrant group of doctoral researchers with a central socio-pedagogical investigative agenda. His interconnected research, supervision and education work is driven by a fascination with the relational, (micro)political and emotional complexities of sports work. He aims to critically explore how networks of social relations influence the thoughts, feelings and (inter)actions of sport professionals, and how sense is made of experience, relationships and the self. Edward has published in the discipline’s leading peer-reviewed journals and books, been invited presenter at numerous international conferences, symposia, and industry events, and examined PhD and Professional Doctorate candidates both in and beyond the sports field. Collectively, the driving mission for Edward’s work is to better understand the situated opportunities and challenges associated with professional practice in order to inform workforce development to the benefit of those leading, working and participating in sport and exercise. Edward drew heavily from this in his work as Programme Leader of the MSc Sport Performance and Analysis, as well as in leading the development of a new department-wide Doctor of Sport qualification, which offers novel opportunities for practitioners across sport coaching, sport management, strength and conditioning, sport science and rehabilitation to engage in doctoral research. In addition, over the last decade, Edward has served the department as co-lead of Knowledge Exchange, Lead on Employability as well as Equality, Diversity and Inclusion, chaired a successful Athena Swan Charter Award, and acted as Interim Research Theme Lead.

Externally, Edward is an executive board member for the Cluster for Research into Coaching (CRiC), and was the Chair of the 6th International Coaching Conference 2024. He is also an Associate Editor of both Sports Coaching Review (SCR) and the Graduate Journal of Sport Science, Coaching, Management, and Rehabilitation (GJSSCMR). He is a member of the World Rugby Science Network and the International Society of Qualitative Research in Sport and Exercise (QRSE). He currently serves an external programme examiner for undergraduate and postgraduate degrees at Stirling University and the University of Limerick respectively, and has held similar roles at Cardiff Metropolitan University and the University of the West of Scotland. He has been an independent panel member for the Periodic Programme Review of Sport Science Cluster degree programmes at Liverpool John Moores University, a consulting advisor for programme development and validation to the University of the West of Scotland, and an invited panel member of the UK Coaching Certificate (UKCC) independent review by the Sport & Recreation Alliance. He is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (FHEA).

Edward’s aim as an ethnographer and sport sociologist is to critically examine in-situ the opportunities and challenges associated with professional practice in order to inform and impact workforce development to the benefit of those leading, working and participating in sport and exercise. He is fascinated by the relational, (micro)political and emotional complexities of sports work, which comprise the very social fabric that makes sports coaching (and other forms of sports work) a central thread in the lives of millions globally. His research explores how networks of social relations influence the thoughts, feelings and (inter)actions of sport professionals, and how sense is made of experiences, relationships and the self.

Edward supervises a vibrant group of PhD candidates and Masters research students whose sociological inquiry examines professional practice, social interactions and embodied identities across a diverse range of sport and professional practice settings. 

Edward is open to enquiries about supervision at MSc and PhD levels.

Please contact: [email protected]