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                                       SPORT STUDIES & POPULAR CULTURE

Sports are both forms of mass culture in a number of different ways. First, millions of people take part as live audiences for sporting events around the world. Second, much of the programming on television and sites on the web deal with sport as do numerous documentary and fiction films. And third, digital games include a large number inspired by or based upon athletics.

Sport plays large role in the national culture of most states around the world, and athletics is an arena where issue of race, gender, class and national identity are embodied and negotiated.

The materials below examine sport and sport culture as a major form of mass mediated social activity, historically and in the present.

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Featured Site

Research Journals & General Interest Sites

Sample Online Articles & Sites of Interest

Selected Bibliography

Abdel-Shehid, Gamal, & Nathan Kalman-Lamb. Out of Left Field: Social Inequality and Sport. Black Point, Nova Scotia: Fernwood Publishing, 2011.

Abdel-Shehid, Gamal. Who Da Man?: Black Masculinities and Sporting Cultures. Toronto: Canadian Scholars’ Press, 2004.

Anderson, Eric. In the Game: Gay Athletes and the Cult of Masculinity. New York: State University of New York Press, 2005.

Anderson, Eric; Rory Magrath & Rachael Bullingham. Out in Sport: The Experiences of Openly Gay and Lesbian Athletes in Competitive Sport. London: Routledge, 2016.

Andrews, David L. & Steven J. Jackson. Sport Stars: The Cultural Politics of Sporting Celebrity. London & NY: Routledge, 2001.

Andrews, David L. Sport, Commerce, Culture: Essays on Sport in Late-capitalist America. NY: Peter Lang, 2006.

Andrews, David L. & Michael L. Silk. Sport and Neoliberalism: Politics, Consumption, and Culture. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2012.

Bairner, Alan. Sport, Nationalism, and Globalization. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 2001.

Barthes, Roland. What is Sport? New Haven, Conn: Yale University Press, 2007.

Bass, Amy. Not the Triumph but the Struggle: The 1968 Olympics and the Making of the Black Athlete. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press, 2006.

Bernhard, Laura M.. “Nowhere for me to go:” Black Female Student-Athlete Experiences on a Predominantly White Campus." Journal for the Study of Sports and Athletes in Education 8.2 :(2016): 67-76.

Bernstein, Alina, and Neil Blain, eds. Sport, Media, Culture: Global and Local Dimensions. London: Frank Cass, 2003.

Bloom, John. To Show What an Indian Can Do: Sports at Native American Boarding Schools. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press, 2000.

Borish, Linda J. ed, The Routledge History of American Sport NY: Routledge, 2016.

Boyd, T.  Young, Black, Rich and Famous: The Rise of the NBA, The Hip Hop Invasion and the Transformation of American Culture. NY: Double Day Publishing, 2003.

Boyle, Raymond, and Richard Haynes. Power Play: Sport, the Media and Popular Culture. Edinburgh, Scotland: Edinburg University Press, 2009.

Brake, Deborah L. Getting in the Game: Title IX and the Women’s Sports Revolution. NY: New York University Press, 2010.

Braun, Robert & Rens Vliegenthart. "The Contentious Fans: The Impact of Repression, Media Coverage, Grievances and Aggressive Play on Supporters Violence."  International Sociology 23.6 (2008): 796–818.

Gems, Gerald et al., Sports in American History: From Colonization to Globalization. Champaign IL: Human Kinetics Press, 2017.

Grundy, Pam and Benjamin Rader, American Sports: from the Age of Folk Games to the Age of the Internet. NY: Peason Education Press (8th edition), 2018. Comprehensive introduction to the history and current nature of sport in U.S. culture.

Hough-Snee, Dexter Zavalza, and Alexander Sotelo Eastman, eds. The Critical Surf Studies Reader. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2017

Jeanrenaud, Claude, and Stefan Késenne. The Economics of Sport and the Media. Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar, 2006.

Karen, D. and R.E. Washington ,eds. The Sport and Society Reader. London, UK: Routledge, 2010.

LaFeber, Walter. Michael Jordan and the New Global Capitalism. NY: W.W. Norton, 2002.

Messner, M., & C. Cooky, C. Gender in Televised Sports: News and Highlights Shows, 1989–2009. Los Angeles, CA: USC Center for Feminist Research, 2010.

Oriad, Michael. Reading Football: How the Popular Press Created an American Spectacle. Durham, NC: University of North Carolina, 1998.

O'Reiil, Jean and Susan K. Cahn, eds. Women and Sport. Boston: Northeastern University Press, 2018.

Rowe, David, ed. Critical Readings: Sport, Culture and the Media. Maidenhead and New York: Open University Press, 2004.

Teetzel, S. . "On Transgendered Athletes, Fairness and Doping: An International Challenge." Sport in Society 9.2 (2006), 227-252.

Ware, S.  Game, Set, Match: Billie Jean King and the Revolution in Women’s Sports. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 2011.

Young Iris Marion. Throwing like a Girl and Other Essays in Feminist Philosophy and Social Theory Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1990. Title essay is a classic.

For a massive bibliography with over 5,000 entires on the history of sport click here.

eSports and Gaming Competitions

Despite the divided popular opinion if esports are a legitimate sport or not, it is a growing trend which has exploded in popularity over the last 5 years. With many gaming leagues and tournaments now rivaling the viewership and prize pools of professional sports organizations it is a culture which cannot be easily ignored. Though some segments of gaming culture can be quite inflammatory, and dominate the online discourse regarding the legitimacy of eSports, much care has been given to provide as much insight as possible into both positions regarding this topic.

Sport Leagues, Associations, Etc.