In this episode Dr. Hettie V. Williams is in discussion with Dr. Joseph N. Cooper about his experience as a Black man in academia and his work in sports studies. Williams is the director of the Trotter Institute at University of Massachusetts at Boston and a historian of the African American experience. There are less than 4 percent African American male full professors in the U.S. and Cooper is one of few in the nation who also occupies an endowed professorship at UMass Boston. He is also the inaugural Dr. J. Keith Motley Endowed Chair of Sport Leadership and Administration at the University of Massachusetts at Boston. His research concentrates on the intersection between sport, education, race, and culture with an emphasis on sport involvement as a catalyst for holistic development. Cooper is also the faculty founder of Collective Uplift (CU) which is an organization designed to educate, empower, inspire, and support individuals to maximize their holistic potential both within and beyond athletic contexts. This is a revealing conversation about what it means to be a Black male academic and one who studies sports from an interdisciplinary framework. For more information about Cooper click here Dr. Joseph N. Cooper and to order his books click here Books by Dr. Joseph N. Cooper