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When Noah Vanderhoeven began graduate studies at Western, he was unfamiliar with the field of political psychology. By his final year, he was teaching a course on it.
Now, as an active researcher in his field, Vanderhoeven is a frequent media commentator on how sports teams, athletes and fans may influence our political behaviour and decisions.
He’s one of 2,561 Western graduates crossing the stage during fall convocation.
Looking back, it’s a journey he could not have imagined.
“I never felt fully comfortable committing to a PhD without knowing what topic I wanted to study,” Vanderhoeven said.
He found one in political psychology, which examines how people’s thoughts, emotions, identities and experiences influence their political beliefs, behaviour and decisions.
For Vanderhoeven, that includes the passion people feel for their favourite sports teams.
He first learned about the field as a master’s student in political science, taking a seminar taught by professor Amanda Friesen, Canada Research Chair in Political Psychology.
The material captured his interest. Friesen unlocked possibilities.
“She put a belief in us that we could study the kinds of topics we found interesting in our life outside of school,” Vanderhoeven said.
“For me, that was sports and politics.”
Friesen encouraged Vanderhoeven to write his final master’s paper on where those two interests intersect. The assignment showed how he could build a research agenda around both. It was proof that pushed him to pursue his PhD in Friesen’s Body Politics Lab, where her team studies how people’s bodies and minds react to politics.
A passion for sports and politics
Vanderhoeven developed his passion for sports, and the numbers behind them, as a child growing up in London, Ont., where both his parents worked for the London Free Press.
“I always liked looking at newspapers, but the sports section really drew my attention,” he said. “Apparently, I liked to look at the stats every morning and was always obsessed with that.”
His fascination proved fitting for a future researcher whose work would one day include complex data analyses of Brexit voting patterns, immigration attitudes and local football club metrics – and be published in the International Journal of Sport Policy and Politics.
As Vanderhoeven grew older, his interests broadened to include economics and politics.
“I gravitated toward the kind of discussions and communicative aspects of political science,” he said.
Publication and conversation: Sharing knowledge in the public domain
Amanda Friesen, CRC in Political Psychology (Western Communications)
Friesen said Vanderhoeven made his mark in her lab by developing research that was rich in theory and methodology and by successfully distilling this knowledge for the public.
Inspired by the growing backlash against athlete activism, he wrote his first paper about a professional baseball team holding a Pride night, which later became a chapter in his PhD dissertation. It was also the basis of his first of 13 (and counting) articles written for The Conversation, a global, independent source of analysis, commentary and research from academics, intended for a public audience.
“Since that first paper, Noah has fully engaged in how sports teams, leagues, athletes and fans may engage with and influence politics,” Friesen said. “This is exciting, cutting-edge work that can advance our understanding of how individuals approach politics as part of their wider worldview, as well as how sports institutions can influence society.”
The four years Vanderhoeven worked on his PhD coincided with a rise in discussions about inclusivity in sports and Canadians’ political concerns about the United States, stemming from U.S. tariffs and trade policies and rhetoric threatening Canadian sovereignty.
“Sport is a very important part of our national identity and reflective of how people think about themselves in the world,” he said.
His doctoral studies also corresponded with significant sporting events that fuelled public conversations about nationalism and identity, from the 2026 Winter Olympics and Canada’s hockey rivalry with the U.S. to the Canadian men’s performance at the 2026 FIFA World Cup and the Toronto Blue Jays’ 2025 World Series run.
Because of his ability to apply his knowledge of sport and nationalism to current events, Vanderhoeven’s expertise continues to be in demand across national media outlets.
“These events gave me opportunities to write and talk about sports to a wider audience. A lot of benefit can come from sharing these insights and engaging the public in that discussion,” he said. “It also helped show my friends and family, ‘this is what I do.’”
Friesen said one of the most impressive aspects of Vanderhoeven’s public engagement is that his broad knowledge of players and teams across many professional sports matches his scholarly excellence.
“He can speak intelligently to questions posed from journalists in connecting what is currently happening in sport with what we know academically,” she said. “It’s been a true joy to see Noah build poise and confidence through interviews and his writing. Over the past couple of years, he has engaged in more public-facing work than many political scientists do in an entire career.”
Beyond the bench: The broader influence of sports
Using existing datasets, Vanderhoeven and Friesen found a correlation between childhood sports participation and adult political participation, for both men and women but stronger for women.
“There does seem to be a relationship between youth participation in sport and political participation in adulthood,” said Vanderhoeven, who also noted that professional women’s sports leagues like the PWHL and WNBA “can have a real positive impact on how women and girls see gender norms.”
This finding reflects a broader theme running through his research.
“Sports are part of people’s day-to-day enjoyment,” Vanderhoeven said. “And that has a big impact.”
Vanderhoeven, who continues to work as project director in Friesen’s lab, is hoping to further his research through postdoctoral work studying sports gambling and prediction markets, including what people think about regulation.
Beyond his research, Vanderhoeven took on leadership roles throughout his PhD, serving as co-chair of the Graduate Association of Political Science and a member of the department’s equity committee, while also teaching undergraduate courses in research methods, Canadian politics and political psychology.
Public engagement will remain a central part of his academic work.
“It’s important to have these conversations,” he said. “More people pay attention to sports than they do to politics, so sports can be a valuable way to connect people with broader discussions about public issues.”
