Dr. Chad Carlson of the Hope College kinesiology faculty has received this year鈥檚 Hope Outstanding Professor Educator (H.O.P.E.) Award from the graduating Class of 2024.
The H.O.P.E. award, first given in 1965, is presented by the graduating class to the professor who they feel epitomizes the best qualities of the Hope College educator. Carlson received the recognition during the college鈥檚 Commencement ceremony, held on Sunday, May 5, at Ray and Sue Smith Stadium.
Carlson is a professor of kinesiology and the director of general education at Hope, where he has been a member of the faculty since 2014. His research is focused broadly on the socio-cultural aspects of sport. His areas of specialization and interest include the philosophy of sport, the history of sports and their role in cultural trends and the connection between sports and Christianity.
Earlier this year, he and Dr. Deborah Van Duinen of the education faculty were awarded Lilly Faculty Fellowships by the Lilly Network of Church-Related Colleges and Universities. The fellowships are for mid-career faculty leaders across the disciplines at Network schools to engage the intersections of Christian thought and practice with the academic vocation. He and Van Duinen were selected as a team for the two-year Lilly Fellows Program, through which they will launch a faculty-development campus project at Hope.
In October 2019, Carlson co-directed the second Global Congress on Sport and Christianity, held at Calvin University. His publications include the book, 鈥淢aking March Madness: The Early Years of the NCAA, NIT, and College Basketball Championship Tournaments, 1922鈥�1951鈥� (University of Arkansas Press, 2017). A 2003 graduate of Hope, where as a student he was on the men鈥檚 basketball team, he conducted research during the 2021-22 academic year on the origins of the Hope-Calvin men鈥檚 basketball rivalry through a Visiting Research Fellowship from the college鈥檚 A.C. Van Raalte Institute.
Carlson earned his Master of Arts degree in the health, physical education and recreation, and pedagogy program at Western 藏花阁直播 University, and his doctorate in kinesiology and the history/philosophy of sport program at Penn State University. Prior to returning to Hope as a professor, he was an assistant professor, assistant chair and graduate program coordinator of the Department of Kinesiology and Sports Studies at Eastern Illinois University.