With only one week left to the beginning of the AIPS digital conference “Racism and Discrimination in Sport” – that will be held on Zoom.us on September 28-29 – we announce the second group of guests that will be discussing the most pressing topics related to discrimination in sport. Not only journalists and athletes have combined forces with AIPS for this event, also scholars and advocates of the fight against racism will indeed be present. The two sessions that, to date, over 300 journalists from 90 countries have noted in thier agendas by registering on the application form, will be thus under the banner of transversality and competence.
Here are the second speakers announced:
BADREDDINE DRISSI LAHSINI – Editor-in-chief, Almountakhab (Morocco)
Badreddine is the editor-in-chief of Almountakhab newspaper and website since 1986. At Almountakhab the bi-weekly newspaper specialized in sport was created in 1986. A great reference in Moroccan and African sport. At the beginning of his career Badreddine Drissi was sport editor at Almithaq Al watani newspaper (1978-1984), editor at Alsaqr weekly review (Qatar) (1984-1986), Editor at Almountakhab newspaper since 1986, Columnist at Alittihad newsletter (United Arab Emirates). He also covered executive positions such as President of the Moroccan Sport Press Association since 2009 and Vice-president of the Arab Union of Sport Press since 2010. He was decorated with Royal Wissam in 1993, Jury member of many international and Arab awards. He’s married and the father of three children.
MARK GLEESON – Sports correspondent for Reuters, soccer commentator for SuperSport (South Africa)
Gleeson began his journalistic career aged 20, winning the prize as the best Cadet Reporter for 1984 and going on to be based in Durban and Johannesburg, through which he cultivated a lifelong passion for African football. Gleeson covered South Africa’s admission to CAF at the Dakar Congress in 1992 and has been to every single Nations Cup tournament since then –14 in a row. He has also attended all World Cups since 1986 in Mexico, missing only Italy in 1990. In 1993 Gleeson founded the soccer magazine KICK OFF, and embarked on a career commentating for television, first with the South African Broadcasting Corporation and later SuperSport. In 2017 Gleeson was awarded the Confederation of African Football’s highest award – Medal of Honour (Gold) – and also inducted into the South African Sports Journalism Hall of fame.
PAYOSHSNI MITRA – Athletes’ Rights advocate and scholar (India)
Dr. Payoshni Mitra is an Athletes’ Rights advocate and scholar who has more than ten years’ experience of working closely with women athletes. Her work focuses on the mental and physical harm caused by the Differences in sex development (DSD) regulations of the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) and its predecessors. Payoshni was instrumental in helping Indian athlete Ms. Dutee Chand challenge the Hyperandrogenism Regulations at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) in 2014-2015, as the Government-appointed advisor to Chand. She was also one of the ten-member expert team who testified for South African athlete Caster Semenya at the CAS earlier this year.
With her research and advocacy work, she has been able to help athletes win legal cases on complex gender issues on more than one occasion. In the past, she has successfully led research projects on issues related to sport, sexual harassment and other forms of gender discrimination with financial support from the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports, Government of India, under the Human Resources Development in Sports Scheme at Jadavpur University. A former Ryoichi Sasakawa Young Leaders Fellowship Fund (SYLFF) Fellow, Payoshni has taught the module Sport in Society on the MSc Sport Management programmes at Birkbeck, University of London, since 2018-19.
RON THOMAS – Sports Writer and Director of Morehouse College’s Journalism and Sports Program (USA)
Graduated from the University of Rochester in 1971 with a degree in political science, Thomas earned a master’s degree in journalism from Northwestern University in 1973. He later began his career in journalism, which lasted for four decades spent as sports writer and copy editor.Thomas worked for 29 years in the San Francisco Bay Area, covering college sports and NBA. Since 1977 he has been a member of the National Association of Black Journalists. Much of his impetus for becoming a sports writer stemmed from the writings of Dr. Harry Edwards and Sports Illustrated’s Jack Olsen in the 1960s, which made America acutely aware of racism in sports. In 2007, Thomas became the first director of Morehouse College’s Journalism and Sports Program. In 2011, Thomas was presented with an Excellence in Sports Journalism Lifetime Achievement Award from Northeastern University’s School of Journalism and Center for the Study of Sport in Society. He specifically was honored for his articles and publications about the racial dimensions of sports. The culmination of a bright career spent on journalism and racism occurred in 2017, when he received the Morehouse College Professor of the Year award and National Association of Black Journalists Legacy Award.
FORMAT The conference will take place on Zoom.us, in line with AIPS’ previous positive experiences on the platform. For each day of the conference, the panels will last around 120 minutes. English will be the language of the event, but participants will have access, once again, to the simultaneous interpreting service Interprefy, which will offer translations in Spanish, French and Arabic.
REGISTRATION: To register for the AIPS seminar, click HERE.
