Claire Jenkin

Claire is a Senior Lecturer in Sports Development at University of Hertfordshire. Prior to this, she was a Sport Management Lecturer at Victoria University in Melbourne. 

She completed a PhD at Victoria University in Australia, in partnership with Australia Sport, examining why older adults may or may not participate in sport. Post PhD research projects have included leading an evaluation of a walking basketball programme for older adults, for Basketball Victoria in Australia, undertaking an evaluation of the award winning SfD Fit, Fed and Read programme in Hertfordshire for the Herts Sports Partnership and being part of the ESRC funded 'Understanding and informing the benefits of sport and physical activity-based programmes for older women in the UK and Japan project. She is also on the advisory board for the British Council Wales 'Wales and the Soft Power of Sport' sport diplomacy project and is part of the academic working group for the Wallace Group. The Wallace Group are a collective of UK universities who support the development of sport in Zambia.

Her research interests include sport for social change, international sport for development and sport diplomacy. 

Prior to entering academia, Claire was a Sport Development Manager in London and also worked on sport for development projects in Zambia. 

Claire is a current committee member of the UK Sport Development Network (UKSDN), and former board member of the Sport Management Association of Australia and New Zealand (SMAANZ), and the Victorian Active Ageing Partnership (VAAP).

• Community sport participation
• Sport for social change
• Sport for development
• Sport diplomacy

Claire's current research projects include:

• SfD evaluation of the Herts Sports Partnership's Fit, Fed and Read project
• ESRC funded 'Understanding and informing the benefits of sport and physical activity-based programmes for older women in the UK and Japan' project

Previous research has included understanding the benefits and barriers of community sport participation for older adults and an evaluation of a older adult modified sport programme. She has also worked on research projects on community sport participation for people with disabilities, women and girls and evaluating sport for health programmes.

Claire's main passions for research are in sport for development, sport for social change and sport diplomacy research.

Claire teaches on the Physical Activity and Sports Development programme, in addition to the Sport Studies programme in sports development. She coordinates the Physical Activity and Sports Policy in Practice, Facilities and Funding in Active Communities and Global Perspectives of Sports Development modules, whilst also contributing to the Advanced Sport Development and Research Skills modules. Furthermore, she supervises final year students on the Advanced Work Experience and Final Year Project modules.

Claire is available for research consultancy and media enquiries in the fields of community sport participation, sport for social change and sport management.