Dr Seth Kirby

Role

Seth is the MSc sport management course leader and module leader across various sport and leisure management areas, including event management and sport ecology. He specialises in sport management with a research focus on event impacts and legacies.

Career overview

Seth joined Nottingham Trent University in September 2019 as a Lecturer and was promoted to Senior Lecturer in October 2023. In 2022, he was awarded his PhD in mega sporting events from Anglia Ruskin University. He achieved Fellow (FHEA) of AdvanceHE in May 2023. Following this, Seth co-founded the Ultra Running Research Network (URRN) in October 2023. The network is an international group of academics and practitioners working on ultra running across the world. In 2025, he became course leader for the MSc Sport Management programme at Nottingham Trent University.

Seth leads and contributes to research and teaching activities through other international groups and networks. For example, he is an associate member of The Sport Ecology Group (SEG). Additionally, he has been involved in the revalidation of sport management programmes. Seth has acted as an external examiner at Birmingham City University, University of Birmingham and Ulster University across undergraduate and postgraduate sport business and management programmes.

Prior to joining Nottingham Trent University, he worked at Sheffield Hallam University and Leeds Beckett University. Seth’s professional background is in marketing, communications and events. During this time, he worked for a range of organisations, including the Environmental Association for Universities and Colleges (EAUC, now The Alliance for Sustainability Leadership in Education).

External activity

Media contributions

Seth has written, contributed to and been featured in media outlets such as Sky News, Fast Company and BusinessGreen:

New stadiums, airports and oil links: the environmental cost of Saudi Arabia’s 2034 World Cup. The Conversation (December 2024). Republished in BusinessGreen.

Three Years of Progress: A Review of Sustainability across the 2021-2024 Olympic Cycle. The Sport Ecology Group & The Sustainability Report (July 2024).

Small Business Event Leveraging. InsideEvents Podcast (November 2023).

Sport and climate action report. 17 Sport (November 2021).

The sustainability crisis of the Olympic Games. SportBusiness (September 2021).

Tokyo 2020 reflections on the Olympic Games. Ticker News, Australia. (August, 2021).

Tokyo Olympics: Are organisers prioritising revenue over safety as cases of COVID-19 surge? Sky News (July 2021).

Tokyo 2020: with no spectators, local sponsors lose out. The Conversation (July 2021). Republished in Fast Company.

Membership of professional bodies and groups

Seth is a member of bodies and groups including the European Association for Sport Management (individual member), Sport Ecology Group (associate member), Leisure Studies Association (individual member) and The Football Collective (individual member). Additionally, he is the co-founder of the Ultra Running Research Network (URRN).

Scholarly activities

Seth is a reviewer for journals including Managing Sport and Leisure and an editorial board member for Event Management.