University of Washington Jackson School of International Studies

Lisa Uperesa is the author of the award-winning Gridiron Capital: How American Football Became a Samoan Game (Duke, 2022) and an associate professor of Asian American Studies at UCLA. She sat down with Ron Krabill, Director of the Global Sport Lab, and Ronalei Gasetoto, who is pursuing her Ph.D. in cultural anthropology at UW, to discuss the book, the relationship between the modern diaspora of Polynesians and global sport, and Pacific Islanders in the academy. The Global Sport Lab, based in the UW's Henry M. Jackson School, is supported by over a dozen UW departments and schools and was founded in 2024. The Lab uses the lens of sport to explore the big challenges of our global world, such as inequity, politics, injustice, human rights, popular culture, democracy and the economy. Music credit: “Merci Kylian” by Laurent Dubois. Full song "Merci Kylian": music.apple.com/us/album/merci-ky…0482?i=1734841106 Music label: www.wotiproduction.com/music-1