Andre Kobayashi Deckrow, Ph.D., (UMN Twin Cities) and Yacov Zohn, Ph.D., (UW Madison) will join a panel discussion on the upcoming 2026 World Cup to be hosted in Canada, Mexico, and the United States. Refreshments will be served.

Deckrow, assistant professor of history, is a public historian and scholar of global migration. His primary research interest is pre-World War II Japanese agricultural migration to Brazil, and sport has been an indispensable element in his teaching and scholarship. He teaches HIST 3412: Soccer: Around the World with the Beautiful Game on the Twin Cities campus. He has also penned "How Baseball Became Brazilian" on Defector.

Zohn received his Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and focuses on political, cultural, and European history through international sport in his research. His dissertation examines the complex intersections of institutional, national, and regional power structures in the USSR through the lens of the Soviet National Soccer Team. His research also shows how soccer was the first battleground for Ukrainian independence after WWII, a fight that continues to this day. 

The panel discussion will be moderated by Y. Andrew Hao, associate professor of sport management.

SHHHHHH: Yacov might have some exclusive knowledge about this World Cup's organizing process. We will have to find out ;)