David Hassan

His research on motorsport in various parts of the work, specifically across the Middle East, has been widely cited. He has published 14 books and over 165 other research outputs, including 90+ peer reviewed articles in a numb er of journals and book chapters. A commissioned anthology of his academic writings will be published by Taylor and Francis in 2017, whilst he has advised a number of universities worldwide on their research strategies.

In 2013 the FIA World Motor Sport Council appointed Prof Hassan, as its sole non-industry representative, to the federation's Strategic Task Force. Previously, in 2009, he was honoured by the President of Ireland Mary McAleese at a reception to mark his academic research on the GAA, whilst his work examining sport management in the Middle East was publicly acknowledged by His Highness Sheikh Nahyan bin Mubarak Al Nahyan, the UAE Minister for Culture, Youth, and Social Development, in March 2013. Hassan previously worked as a consultant with Gleneagles Hotel in 1995/6, the setting for the 2014 Ryder Cup tournament, and is a keen golfer and motorsport enthusiast.

Hassan has been a commentator on sports research in the international media. His opinion has been used by Sky News Inc., BBC, Dubai TV, Al Jazeera, Abu Dhabi Sports, ITV, Setanta Sports and, in print and multi-media platforms, Irish Times, Belfast Telegraph, the Irish News and Al Bayan newspapers. Hassan has also appeared in many sports programmes for BBC radio and television, including the radio documentary 'Does the Cap Fit?', which won the Gold Award at the 2012 PPI awards ceremony, Setanta Sports' documentary series 'Sport Matters' and Dubai Sports TV 'Motorstar 2011' series designed to find the next young driver from the FIA's Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. He has spoken publicly on a range of issues relating to Irish sport, including on GAA governance and management.

He is also Founding Co-Director of the Special Olympics Regional Research Collaborating Centre for Europe-Eurasia based at Ulster. The facility was officially opened by Special Olympics Europe Eurasia CEO Mary Davis in April 2011 at the university's Jordanstown campus. His work in this area, which has secured over £275k in external funding to date, has enhanced the use of sport to aid levels of integration by young people with intellectual and developmental disabilities across Europe and further afield, including in India. He is a member of the editorial board of a number of academic journals including Telesna Kultura. He is also a member of the European Federation of Adapted Physical Activity and delivered an address at its conference in May 2012 in the Republic of Ireland. In 2009 Prof Hassan was awarded a US Government grant to undertake further collaborative study with Boston College, Mass on "sport and good relations" whilst he remains Visiting Professor at the University of Technology, Sydney and Griffith University, Gold Coast, Australia.

In 2006, Hassan was awarded a Distinguished Research Fellowship by the University of Ulster. He was a contributor to the North American Society of Sports History Book Award Winner in the Anthology category in 2010 (Mike Cronin, William Murphy, and Paul Rouse (eds.)) The Gaelic Athletic Association, 1884–2009: A People's History (Irish Academic Press) having been shortlisted in the 2009 Irish McNamee Awards in the Best GAA History Publication category for his edited work with Donal McAnallen and Roddy Hegarty entitled The Evolution of the GAA Pobal, Club, Contae agus Tir (Ulster Historical Foundation: Belfast). (Published 30 November 2009: ISBN 978-1903688830) .

Hassan is Academic Editor of "Sport in Society", a sports academic journal. In 2008 he was also appointed Series Editor of Foundations in Sport Management, by the academic publishers Routledge. During this same year he was invited to become an International Scholar with the International Football Institute, whilst he has delivered over 25 invited lectures, including at Oxford University during the Summer Olympic Games of 2012 and again during the FIFA World Cup of 2014. His views on sport governance have included observations on the efficacy of the sporting model employed by the Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA). He was appointed in 2015 to a 12-person strategic task force – Towards 150 – by the then President of the GAA, Aoghan O Farreil, tasked with defining the future direction for Ireland's largest sporting body.

Hassan's research in the field of motorsport included a study he led on the viability (for the first time) of a round of the FIA World Rally Championship (WRC) being staged in Ireland, which was realised in 2007 and became the largest North-South sporting initiative ever undertaken. Hassan's research revealed that hosting the 2007 WRC round was worth €46 million to the Irish economy.

His role in promoting links between Northern Ireland and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) was supported by the First and Deputy First Ministers in the Northern Ireland Assembly, Peter Robinson and Martin McGuinness, and substantially by its investment arm, Invest NI. In 2007 Prof Hassan was appointed to the Irish Football Association's (IFA) 'Football for All' Executive Advisory panel, and he remains an advisor on policy to a range of international sporting associations, including Zayed Higher Organization for Humanitarian Care and Special Needs, based in Dubai. Prof Hassan was an "expert witness" at the UEFA investigation, held in January 2014, into events at the Champions League games played at the Amsterdam Arena in the Netherlands in November 2013, which involved racist and sectarian chanting on the part of Ajax fans towards their contemporaries from Glasgow Celtic FC.

A native of Feeny, County Londonderry, Northern Ireland and a former pupil of St Columb's College, Derry, Hassan obtained a first class Bachelor of Arts degree in 1997, a Master of Science degree in 1998 and the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in 2001. His thesis, examining the relationship between sport and nationalism in Ireland, was supervised by the political scientist Professor Alan Bairner and drawn from research work he conducted during the late 1990s when sport in Northern Ireland was heavily infiltrated by political influences. He worked freelance for a number of established newspapers and magazines in his native Northern Ireland during his late teens and travelled widely, including to South America, Australia and Africa, researching and writing about sport in a number of parts of the world.

In association football, Hassan was a member of the Cliftonville FC squad that won the Irish League championship during the 1997/98 season. He also represented Northern Ireland universities in the British Home nation championships on two occasions (association football) including as part of the victorious side of 2001. He remains one of the few players to have played in two of Ireland's old sporting competitions, the Collingwood and Sigerson Cups.

Hassan remains one of the few players to have represented his native county, Derry, at senior inter-county level in both Gaelic football and hurling. Earlier he won Ulster championship medals with Derry in 1990 at minor (U-18) level and again in 1993 at U-21 level (both Gaelic football). He was part of the Derry senior squad which lost the Ulster Championship final to Cavan in 1997 and the National Football League Division 1 final to Offaly in 1998. He was one of the longest serving players for his club, St. Mary's GAC, Banagher, in both Gaelic football and hurling having begun his career in 1988 before retiring in 2010. Previously, in 2002, he assumed a role as part of the coaching team which steered Derry minors (U-18) to the 2002 All Ireland and Ulster minor championships. Also in 2002, he was a coach with the Donegal senior football team that qualified for the quarter finals of that year's All-Ireland senior football championships, losing to Dublin following a replay. The following year, 2003, he was made assistant manager of the University of Ulster Jordanstown's Sigerson cup team which reached the semi-finals of the tournament. In 2014 he became part of the Derry senior football management team, supporting Brian McIvor as the county returned to Division 1 of the National Football league, qualifying for the Division 1 final in 2015.

David Hassan (born 16 November 1972, Derry, Northern Ireland) is an academic, writer, and current Associate Dean of the Faculty of Life and Health Sciences (Global Engagement) at Ulster University. He is also Professor of Sport Policy and Management at the University. Professor Hassan has also held research leadership positions at Ulster, including as the Head of the Research Graduate School for the Faculty of Life and Health Sciences. In 2016 he was also appointed Provost of the Belfast campus of Ulster University, which was then undergoing a £250 million redevelopment. He has been involved in collaborative work with the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA).