David Hassan is an academic, writer, and Associate Dean of the Faculty of Life and Health Sciences at Ulster University. He is also Professor of Sport Policy and Management at the University. 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. He has been involved in collaborative work with the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile.
Hassan has published 14 books and over 165 other research outputs, including 90+ peer reviewed articles in a number of journals and book chapters. He has also advised a number of universities worldwide on their research strategies. Hassan's research in the field of motorsport included a study on the viability of a round of the FIA World Rally Championship being staged in Ireland, which was realised in 2007. 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, and gave a lecture at Oxford University during the Summer Olympic Games of 2012. His views on sport governance have included observations on the efficacy of the sporting model employed by the Gaelic Athletic Association. He was appointed in 2015 to a 12-person strategic task force – Towards 150 – by the then President of the GAA, Aoghan O Farreil. His role in promoting links between Northern Ireland and the United Arab Emirates was supported by members of the Northern Ireland Assembly. In 2007, Hassan was appointed to the Irish Football Association's 'Football for All' Executive Advisory panel. 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. 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.
Sports
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. 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 played both Gaelic football and hurling for his club St. Mary's GAC, Banagher. 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. 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 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. Hassan has also been a commentator on sports research, and has appeared in sports programmes for BBC radio and television, including the radio documentary 'Does the Cap Fit?', and the Dubai Sports TV 'Motorstar 2011'. He has spoken publicly on GAA governance and management.
Honours
In 2006, Hassan was awarded a Distinguished Research Fellowship by the University of Ulster. He was shortlisted in the 2009 Irish McNamee Awards in the Best GAA History Publication category for his editing work with Donal McAnallen and Roddy Hegarty in The Evolution of the GAA Pobal, Club, Contae agus Tir. In 2013, the FIA World Motor Sport Council appointed Hassan as a 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.
