Skills-based Minor
"Opportunities both in and out of the classroom at Hamline allowed me to further hone my love for storytelling and reporting. I was encouraged to explore different journalism styles and formats—from breaking news, feature and enterprise writing to profiles and reviews, short-form video, photo essays and audio storytelling—in order to tell stories in the most innovative and engaging ways and make people want to keep listening."
"My favorite class has been 'The Anthropology of Sport' with Professor Sumera. Despite it being an introductory class, it really put a voice to how I feel about sporting events in their most basic components. A group gets together and plays a game, and people create meaning and build community within and around it. It made sports themselves, not the biomechanics or the marketing strategies, feel like a researchable realm, one that I want to dig even more into."
Students interested in sports communication can take advantage of our Twin Cities location to gain real-world experience in sports media, marketing, and game-day operations. Recent Hamline internships include:
Game Day Intern - Production | Minnesota Aurora FC
Marketing & Promotions Game Day Intern | Saint Paul Saints
Vikings GameDay Intern | Minnesota Vikings
Hockey Operations Intern | Minnesota Wild
Changeover & Event Staff | Minnesota Twins
Sports Medicine Communication Intern | Hamline University
Accounting & Marketing Analytics Intern | 2nd Swing Golf
Sports Management Intern | Dash Sports
Faculty teaching in Hamline's Sports Communication and Culture teach in the following programs: English and Communication Studies, Anthropology, Physics, Biology, and Public Health. Learn more about some of our professors below.
Matt Sumera is an anthropologist, ethnomusicologist, lifelong skateboarder, and more recently, a distance runner. His work explores the intersections of sports, sound, and politics—focusing on global soccer cultures, martial arts history, extreme sports, and the acoustic dimensions of athletic movement. He teaches in the Anthropology program.
Assistant Professor Casper Voyles studies the social experiences of people in sport to support equal access to the health benefits of athletic involvement. He received a BA in Psychology and Russian Language & Culture from Colby College, and a Master of Public Health and PhD in Community Health & Prevention from Drexel University.
Dr. Burleson teaches classes on human biology to majors and non-majors, as well as courses on inclusive science. She currently studies how the human body is represented in health science textbooks, and is serving as the Central Region Director for the Human Anatomy & Physiology Society (HAPS).
Bruce Bolon has been a professor in the Hamline Physics Department since 2002. Sports have been a main interest throughout his life. A huge baseball fan, he also loves to play volleyball, racquetball, and ultimate frisbee. In the spring of 2026, he introduced a new course for non-science majors entitled 'The Physics of Sports.'"
