Many of our media students at UCFB have enjoyed a recent flurry of exceptional guest speakers joining them in lectures as part of their latest module.
While studying ‘Contemporary Sporting Issues,’ the students have been visited by world boxing champions, UCFB alumni and even former chief sports reporters for national newspapers.
All the guest speakers have been discussing the many sporting issues which are being taught in the classrooms, such as transgender athletes in sport, how the media treats LGBTQ+ athletes and racism in football.
One of the guests was former UCFB student Raven Chapman, the WBC featherweight world boxing champion. Not only did she talk to Third Year students about women and media in sport, but also ran a sparring session in class!
This was followed by a visit from Troy Townsend, head of player engagement at Kick It Out, who gave a powerful presentation during one of the lectures and took questions from the students on racism in modern football.
Two guests then spoke to the students and gave alternative views on the transgender athletes debate. Firstly, former Olympic silver medallist Sharron Davies spoke to the Third Years’, before Erin Williams from Stonewall also joined in.
Another alumnus who waded in on the contemporary sporting issue was Emily Drakeley, who co-founded Her Game Too, which looks to create safer environments for women and girls who attend football matches.
Finally, former Daily Mail chief sports reporter and The Times tennis correspondent Neil Harman talked the students through his career, as he has just launched his book ‘All My Own Words.’
Neil spoke about the advent of digital journalism, how the industry has changed, and even told some stories of getting into a heated row with Sir Alex Ferguson.
Multimedia Sports Journalism programme leader David King said: “The speaker sessions went down brilliantly with the students asking some really challenging questions.”
Be sure to find out more about our other media-related undergraduate degrees, Football Business and Media and Sports Business and Sports Broadcasting.
