Professor Ryan has a strong national and international research involvement in the sub-disciplines of sports history and the social history of alcohol in New Zealand. He is recognised as a leader in advancing the discipline of sports history in New Zealand and is now developing a similar niche within the history of alcohol. In late 2023 he published a major history of beer and brewing in New Zealand. Prior to that, with a co-author, he published the first substantial academic social history of sport in New Zealand. He is the Managing Editor of The International Journal of the History of Sport and on the editorial boards, and reviews for, other leading international journals. His talk to our U3A will be on the history of alcohol in New Zealand.
