Researcher biography
Dr Lee McGowan is a researcher, writer, and teacher. He has been awarded Category 2 and 3 grant funding. His publications include journal articles, book chapters, a digital history, an exhibition, fiction, and creative non-fiction. In 15 years of learning and teaching, he has designed, delivered, and coordinated programs and courses in higher degree research, postgraduate coursework, and undergraduate studies. He has accumulated 19 HDR completions to date and is a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.
Lee's primary research interests are in the intersections of creative writing, sport, and community engagement. In 2024 he co-authored Women's Football in Oceania (Routledge) and Beach Soccer Histories (Routledge). Before that, he co-edited an anthology on Intersections of Creative Writing and Sport (Springer 2023), wrote Football in Fiction: a history (Routledge 2019) and co-authored Never Say Die: The Hundred Year Overnight Success of Australian Women's Football (New South 2019). His new co-authored monograph, Contemporary Literary Sports Journalism (Palgrave), will be published in early 2026. He is currently working up a small number of new writing projects.
Publications
Books
McGowan, Lee, Symons, Kasey, Hoey, Paddy and Ellison, Elizabeth (2025). Contemporary literary sports journalism: histories, futures, and the contests in between. Cham, Switzerland: Springer Nature Switzerland. doi: 10.1007/978-3-032-06143-0
McGowan, Lee, Ellison, Elizabeth and Lastella, Michele (2023). Beach soccer histories. Abingdon, Oxon, United Kingdom: Routledge. doi: 10.4324/9781003288541
McGowan, Lee, Symons, Kasey and Kanemasu, Yoko (2023). Women’s football in Oceania. London, United Kingdom: Routledge. doi: 10.4324/9781003300083
Crawford, Fiona and McGowan, Lee (2019). Never Say Die: The Hundred-Year Overnight Success of Australian Women’s Football. Sydney, NSW Australia: NewSouth Publishing.
McGowan, Lee (2019). Football in fiction: a history. London, United Kingdom: Routledge. doi: 10.4324/9780429344053
Book Chapters
McGowan, Lee, Kanemasu, Yoko, Taylor, Chelsey and Symons, Kasey (2024). Reframing Impact Through Sharing Stories: Reflections on Emerging Evaluation Practices in Women's Football in the Pacific Islands. Towards a Pacific Island Sociology of Sport. (pp. 163-181) Cheltenham, United Kingdom: Emerald Group. doi: 10.1108/s1476-285420240000022009
McGowan, Lee, Symons, Kasey and Fiedler, Amanda (2023). Beyond the box score: reflecting on the intersections of sport and society in creative writing. Intersections of sport and society in creative writing. (pp. 1-10) edited by Lee McGowan and Kasey Symons. Singapore: Springer Singapore. doi: 10.1007/978-981-99-5585-5_1
Hoey, Paddy and McGowan, Lee (2023). Don Davies & Hugh McIlvanney: the literary football reporters who elevated british sports journalism. Intersections of sport and society in creative writing. (pp. 31-46) edited by Lee McGowan and Kasey Symons. Singapore: Springer Singapore. doi: 10.1007/978-981-99-5585-5_3
Wright-Brough, Freya and McGowan, Lee (2021). Kicking, not screaming. Football and Popular Culture. (pp. 71-86) London, United Kingdom: Routledge. doi: 10.4324/9781003002604-8
McGowan, Lee, Ellison, Elizabeth and Lastella, Michele (2020). Australian beach soccer: tracing paradoxical narratives. Writing the Australian beach. (pp. 181-194) edited by Elizabeth Ellison and Donna Lee Brien. Cham, Switzerland: Springer International Publishing. doi: 10.1007/978-3-030-35264-6_11
McGowan, Lee (2017). Football and its fiction. Routledge handbook of football studies. (pp. 222-235) edited by John Hughson, Kevin Moore, Ramón Spaaij and Joseph Maguire. Abingdon, Oxon, United Kingdom: Routledge. doi: 10.4324/9780203066430
Journal Articles
Symons, Kasey and McGowan, Lee (2025). Standing with FC St. Pauli: an examination of a reflexive autoethnographic account of a woman sports fan’s experience of German men’s professional football. Equality, Diversity and Inclusion, 1-16. doi: 10.1108/edi-06-2024-0279
McLeod, Joshua, Zeimers, Géraldine, Robertson, Jonathan, Ordway, Catherine, McGowan, Lee and Shilbury, David (2024). “Seven weeks is not a lot of time”: Temporal work and institutional change in Australian football. Journal of Sport Management, 38 (4), 257-270. doi: 10.1123/jsm.2023-0278
Almeida Passos, Arthur, Fiedler, Amanda, Sauvage, Juliette, Mackenzie, Kyle, Whiley, Taryn, Kanemasu, Yoko, Symons, Kasey and McGowan, Lee (2023). Creative writers working on a women’s football project: an examination of the collaborative practices of differing communities on a project for the women’s game in Fiji, Samoa, and Solomon Islands - O trabalho de escritores em um projeto para o futebol feminino: examinando práticas colaborativas entre diferentes comunidades em um projeto para o esporte feminino em Fiji, Ilhas Salomão e Samoa. FuLiA/UFMG, 8 (2), 156-184. doi: 10.35699/2526-4494.2023.45348
Symons, Kasey and McGowan, Lee (2023). Re-viewing the woman as fan: an examination of the narrative framing of the women in cinematic adaptations of Nick Hornby’s fever pitch. Sport in Society, 26 (7), 1265-1279. doi: 10.1080/17430437.2022.2125804
Hoey, Paddy, McGowan, Lee and Forrest, David (2022). Subverting the inverted pyramid: Kevin McCarra and the revolution in British football journalism 1988-2020. Text, 26 (Special 67), 1-17. doi: 10.52086/001c.37826
Symons, Kasey, McGowan, Lee and Hickling, Ali (2022). Introduction: Creative writing and sport. Text, 26 (Special 67), 1-5. doi: 10.52086/001c.37817
Forrest, David and McGowan, Lee (2021). Behind the goal: exploring the football (soccer) goal net through object biography and creative non-fiction. Text, 25 (Special 63), 1-15. doi: 10.52086/001c.29721
Lee, McGowan, Alex, Philp and Jeffery, Ella (2020). Introduction. Text, 24 (Special 59), 1-6. doi: 10.52086/001c.23454
Philp, Alex, Jeffery, Ella and McGowan, Lee (2020). Collaboration and its discontents: considerations for creative writing HDR students collaborating on traditional research outputs. Text, 24 (Special 59), 1-18. doi: 10.52086/001c.23482
Lastella, Michele, Escobar, Luiz, Lovell, Geoff P., Scanlan, Aaron, Ellison, Elizabeth, McGowan, Lee and Guy, Joshua H. (2020). An exploration of goal scoring strategies in an elite beach soccer tournament. Science and Medicine in Football, 4 (3), 192-195. doi: 10.1080/24733938.2020.1758759
McLay, Grant, McGowan, Lee, Moyle, Gene and Frossard, Laurent (2020). Building Fields of Play: An examination of the use of notational analysis to reinterpret dynamic and sequential movement from Rugby Union to inform the creation of a new dance work. Choreographic Practices, 11 (1), 163-185. doi: 10.1386/chor_00017_1
McGowan, Lee, Ellison, E. and Lastella, M. (2020). Sea-level playing fields: an exploration of the histories of beach soccer and its practices within one specific context, the Australian beach. Soccer and Society, 21 (3), 289-298. doi: 10.1080/14660970.2019.1620212
McGowan, Lee, Philp, Alex and Jeffery, Ella (2020). Creating collaborative capacity in early career research writers. Text (Australia), 24 (Special issue 59). doi: 10.52086/001C.23460
McGowan, Lee (2019). Women’s association football (Soccer) in Brisbane, Queensland 1921–1933: New perspectives on early competition. Sport in History, 39 (2), 187-206. doi: 10.1080/17460263.2019.1602075
Gattenhof, Sandra, Sibthorpe, Nathan, Hancox, Donna, McGowan, Lee and Oancea, Sorin (2019). Senses of Community: Place-making and digital narrative through embodied practice. Social Alternatives, 38 (1), 21-29.
McGowan, Lee, Hancox, Donna and Philp, Alex (2019). Dirty Hands: Community engagement through practice as research. Social Alternatives, 38 (1), 3-4.
McGowan, Lee and Downes, Greg (2018). The Challenges Remain: A 'new' view of old perspectives on the history of women's football in Australia. Social Alternatives, 37 (2), 62-70.
Lynch, Daniel, McGowan, Lee and Hancox, Donna (2017). Iterative multimodality: An exploration of approaches to transmedia writing. Text, 21 (2), 1-12. doi: 10.52086/001c.25232
McGowan, Lee and O'Donnell, Stephen (2015). Scripted drama: The long wait for football to be taken seriously as a literary subject. The Blizzard, 116-125.
McGowan, Lee (2015). Marking out the pitch: a historiography and taxonomy of football fiction. Soccer and Society, 16 (1), 76-97. doi: 10.1080/14660970.2014.882820
Delbridge, Matt and McGowan, Lee (2015). Green: Exploring the aestheticized use of chroma-key techniques and technologies in two intermedial productions. Body, Space and Technology, 14. doi: 10.16995/bst.28
McGowan, Lee (2010). Piggery and predictability: an exploration of the hog in football’s limelight. M/C Journal, 13 (5). doi: 10.5204/mcj.291
McGowan, Lee and Russo, Heidi (2007). Finding our way to the future: Directions for a city of opportunity. Journal of Futures Studies, 12 (1), 131-144.
Conference Papers
Symons, Kasey and McGowan, Lee (2024). Fandom in Fiction: Investigating the Growing Genre of Sports Romance Novels that Centre Diversity and Inclusion Narratives. 30th Sports Management Association of Australia & New Zealand Conference, Geelong, VIC Australia, 4-6 December 2024. SMAANZ.
Symons, Kasey and McGowan, Lee (2023). Investigating the Growing Genre of Queer Sports Romance Novels Centring the Australian Women’s National Football League (AFLW) and Connections to Fandom of Women’s Sport. 40th Sport Literature Assocation Annual Conference, Fredericton, Canada, 21-24 June 2023.
Symons, Kasey and McGowan, Lee (2022). Creative Writing, Collaboration and Maximising Conference Connections: A Reflection on the Collaborative Environment of the Sport Literature Association. 39th Sport Literature Assocation Annual Conference, Online, 15-18 June 2022.
McGowan, Lee and Symons, Kasey (2021). Non-player Performances: An Examination of the Roles Non-male Characters are Allocated in Australian Sports Fiction Related to Two Codes of Football. 38th Sport Literature Assocation Annual Conference, Online, 23-26 June 2021.
Symons, Kasey and McGowan, Lee (2020). In not being ‘One of the Lads: An examination of the role of the female fan in “FeverPitch.”. 37th Sport Literature Association Annual Conference, Online, 17-20 June 2020.
Klaebe, Helen, Hancox, Donna and McGowan, Lee (2014). Transmedia storytelling: from interviewing to multi-platform. 18th International Oral History Association Conference, Barcelona, Spain, 9-12 Jul 2014.
Klaebe, Helen, Hancox, Donna and McGowan, Lee (2014). Transmedia Storytelling: From Interviewing to Multi-Platform. 18th International Oral History Association (IOHA) Conference: Power and Democracy: the many voices of Oral History, Barcelona, Spain, 9-12 June 2014.
Delbridge, Matthew and McGowan, Lee (2013). Chroma Key Theatre : an examination of similarities and divergences in the use of Green Screen in two experimental theatre works. Cinema In Theatre in French and English-Speaking Cultures: International Conference, Lyon, France, 19-20 December 2013.
McGowan, Lee (2011). Not just another ball game: young adult and adult football fictions are different. International Research Society for Children's Literature (IRSCL) Biennial Congress: Fear and Safety in Children's Literature, Brisbane, QLD Australia, 4-8 July 2011.
McGowan, Lee (2010). Marking out the pitch : Defining the soccer fiction genre. Sports Literature Association (SLA) Conference 2010, Williamsport, PA United States, 22–26 June 2020.
Newspaper Articles
McGowan, Lee (2024, 12 31). Women love playing sport – and writing about it. Here are 6 fascinating and surprising sports books by women The Conversation
Gattenhof, Sandra, McGowan, Lee and Hancox, Donna (2019, 10 04). Creative engagement with the APR Intern program for practitioner-researchers NiTRO - Non Traditional Research Outcomes
McGowan, Lee (2017, 02 09). From banned to international glory, women's soccer has sown a rich field for the future The Conversation doi: 10.64628/AA.erukwttdt
McGowan, Lee (2014, 03 21). The case for Sheilas, Wogs and Poofters by Johnny Warren The Conversation doi: 10.64628/AA.xaqfv3kfg
McGowan, Lee (2013, 11 19). From stadium to page: why football deserves more fiction The Conversation doi: 10.64628/AA.rgg5ccq7c