Palesa Mashigo

Palesa Mashigo is a lecturer and PhD candidate at Erasmus University Rotterdam, affiliated with the Erasmus School of History, Culture and Communication. She recently received the Best Paper award for Early Career Researchers at the 6th annual Sports and Discrimination Conference for her project examining racism in European football culture, supervised by Prof. Jacco van Sterkenburg. Her research focuses on diversity in football and aims to support women and individuals from ethnic minority backgrounds in pursuing careers within the sport. Palesa has contributed to various scholarly publications, including works on racial perceptions in football leadership and the representation of diversity in media. She is also involved in developing educational resources, such as a MOOC on diversifying football leadership. With a strong commitment to addressing issues of race and inclusion in sports, Palesa continues to engage with both academic and public discourse on these critical topics.