Izaskun Larrieta selected for the 2022 Jon Bilbao Chair research residency

Izaskun Larrieta has been selected for the Jon Bilbao Chair research residency. Her project, ´Athletic Club as a Vector of Basque Internationalization´, will focus on studying Basque identity through the association with Athletic Club in the American diaspora. She will spend from August to September 2022 at the University of Nevada, Reno (UNR), USA.

The aim of the study will be to examine the role of Athletic Club as a tool for the internationalisation of the diaspora. More specifically, to analyse the presence, image and value of the Athletic Club brand in the context of Basque identity.

Larrieta will examine how football helps to build identity, combining sport and identity. Football is an international spectator event, so Larrieta will research how it can be used as a tool for internationalisation. She intends to study the development and meaning of national identities.

On 12 April 1967, Athletic Club played its first match in the United States. In 2015, the Boise Festival invited the Bilbao team to play there. Drawing on this experience, she intends to examine how the team´s trips to the USA have not always been made strictly for sporting reasons but rather related to identity.

During the first phase of the stay, Larrieta will carry out qualitative research based on observations and in-depth interviews. In the second phase, she will perform bibliographical and documentary research.