About
Hannah Thompson-Radford is a Senior Lecturer in Sports Communication and Journalism. She is both a scholar and a freelance reporter, content creator and commentator on women’s sport, predominantly cricket.
She holds a BA in English and Sport Science, an MA in Global Media and Cultural Industries and an MSc in Social Science Research Methods. Her research interests intersect with sports sociology and media and communication schools with an overall emphasis on gender.
Hannah’s ESRC funded PhD theorises the (in)visibility of women’s sport, and more specifically, she examines how elite female cricketers perceive media (in)visibility as well as their attitudes towards social media. Central to her work are the voices of elite female athletes both past and present, meaning that her research is about, developed in conjunction with, and for the benefit of, women in sport. Hannah has also published on pregnancy and motherhood in sport, focusing, for example, on Serena Williams’ social media use.
External to her research, Hannah is a social media freelancer and has worked on major events such as the Winter Olympics, Cricket World Cup, Billie Jean King Cup, Davis Cup and Formula E events. Additionally, she has covered FA WSL and Championship and has worked as a media officer for Leicester City Women FC and as a media manager for Loughborough Lightning cricket in the former Kia Super League as well as managing and assisting with Lightning netball and rugby franchises.
She currently freelances for BBC Sport on cricket, and her work also regularly features regularly on platforms such as The Cricketer, The Independent, The Official England Cricket match programme and Yahoo Sports. Hannah also commentates on ECB regional women’s cricket competitions for The Blaze and Western Storm livestreams. She has also worked as a content creator in The Hundred working with Trent Rockets.