Jacco van Sterkenburg works as a Full Professor " 'Race' , Inclusion and Communication, with a Focus on the Sports and Media Sectors" in the Department of Media & Communication, Erasmus School of History Culture and Communication at Erasmus University. He is also Erasmus University's Chief Diversity Officer (CDO). Jacco obtained his PhD at the Humanities faculty of Utrecht University in 2011. In addition, Jacco has an MA (Drs.) degree in Psychology at Utrecht University with a specialization in Cross-cultural Psychology. For the past years, Jacco van Sterkenburg’s research has focused in particular on the following topics: 
* Football and race in a broad sense, including media, gaming, leadership, professional and recreational sports/football
* Media, Inclusion and Diversity
* Race, ethnicity, gender, whiteness in sports media, sport leadership and sport coaching, in an internationally comparative perspective

Jacco’s research has gained recognition inside and outside academia. This is evident from academic grants as such as the NWO-M grant for a 5-year project on race and gender in football video gaming (2026-2030), an NWO Vidi grant for a 5-year project on race/ethnicity and whiteness in mediated football (2018-2023), and a KNAW grant on Science Communication. His research on race and gender in sport media, e-sports and in football leadership across European football has also been funded (as co-applicant or main applicant) by the Dutch National Science Agenda (NWO-NWA), ZonMW, The Dutch Ministry of Justice, a European Erasmus+ grant, FIFA and UEFA scholarships, and various Erasmus University Rotterdam grants. He has written books and edited collections (e.g. on sports, media and discrimination, with Routledge), chapters, and articles in peer-refereed journals such as Ethnic and Racial Studies, Media Culture & Society, European Journal of Cultural Studies, Language and Intercultural Communication, Communication and Sport, Journal of Sport and Social Issues, International Review for the Sociology of Sport, and Soccer & Society. He has participated in advisory committees, popular fora, debates, and radio and TV programs. Moreover, Jacco acts as a supervisor (‘promotor’) of seven PhD candidates. He has been a visiting faculty at Leeds Beckett University, Roehampton University, Brunel University (London), University of Copenhagen, and a Visiting Professor at Victoria University Melbourne (Australia, January 2018). Currently, Jacco van Sterkenburg is also a Guest Researcher at Mulier Institute; Associate Editor of the peer-refereed journal Communication and Sport; Selected member of the Raad voor de Geesteswetenschappen (Dutch Council for Humanities); Editorial board member of diverse academic journals; Chair of the Supervisory board of WODC funded research; and he was one of the twelve Advisory Board Members of the International Sociology of Sport Association (ISSA) (2016-2023). Besides his leadership role as the university's Chief Diversity Officer since 2026, he currently also acts as the Faculty's Academic Lead 'Societal Impact', is a member of the university-wide Societal Engagement Board, and is part of the Faculty's Research Management Board. While he acted as the BA-1 coordinator for 7 years (2017-2023), he is currently serving as the Bachelor 2&3 coordinator, of the International Bachelor Communication and Media (IBCoM) at Erasmus University Rotterdam (2024-2026).  Jacco’s teaching focuses on diversity and inclusion, intercultural communication, research methods, sociology of sport and football, media and diversity, audience reception research and theory, politics of representation.