Dr. Arne van Lienden is a postdoctoral researcher at Erasmus University Rotterdam and Radboud University Nijmegen. His research focuses on processes of inclusion and exclusion in sport and sport media, particularly through the lenses of race and gender. His work spans multiple geographic contexts, including the Netherlands and Poland, and uses a wide range of qualitative research methods.

Arne has conducted media analyses of televised football and Olympic coverage, examining how athletes from minority backgrounds are represented. He has also studied how young audiences engage with sport media and explored the production dynamics within sport journalism. Notably, he has investigated how the predominantly white and male composition of sport journalism influences portrayals of diverse athletes—conducting interviews and workplace observations with journalists in both Poland and the Netherlands.

His research extends beyond media to coaching structures in football. With support from a UEFA Research Grant, Arne collaborated with the Dutch and English Football Associations to explore the underrepresentation of female coaches from ethnic minority backgrounds. Through interviews, stakeholder engagement, and participant observation in coaching education programs, he highlighted the structural barriers these coaches face. Using an intersectional framework, his work reveals how gender and race intersect in male- and white-dominated environments to shape lived experiences.