Dr. Drew D. Brown is a leading scholar in the area of race, sports, and culture. He is currently an Assistant Professor in Africana Studies where he studies a wide range of topics surrounding the culture and existence of African people, both continental and Diaspora. His academic focus explores the history and practice of sporting (sports-related) Black culture. He seeks to answer the questions of how, why, and in what ways sport has been used as an instrument in Black expression. He is presently working on his first book titled “Baller Culture,” which identifies the ways Black people have expressed their creativity, resisted cultural assimilation, and re-imagined themselves all through an identity that is based in sports, street, and hip-hop culture.
Dr. Brown is a native of Windsor, Ont. Canada and is of Jamaican ancestry. He attended Lafayette College where he played varsity football and received a BA in Economics and Business. In 2006, he was drafted into the Canadian Football League and spent a short time with the Edmonton Eskimos. He went on to complete a Master’s in African American Studies at Clark Atlanta University and his Doctorate at Temple University. His dissertation focuses on NFL draft prospects’ conceptions of manhood and ideas of playing in the NFL. While at Temple, Dr. Brown conceptualized the nation's first annual race and sports conference. The Passing The Ball: Race and Sports Conference is the country's leading conference and conversation, which explores the role of sports in our daily lives through the lens of blackness. The conference has attracted international attention and garnered high praise from his contemporaries from around the country.
As a scholar-activist, Dr. Brown has participated in several social justice initiatives. In 2013, he was invited to the White House as part of the Black LGBT Emerging Leaders program and participated in cabinet-level conversations as an expert on Black-male identity in sports. As an LGBT ally, he worked in the Human Rights Campaign and the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force.