Sports, Power, and Resistance
An Introduction to Critical Sports Studies
Will be published approx. on 22. September 2026
Book
Hardback
264 pages
978-0-252-04994-1 (ISBN)
Description
Sports embodies and defines US culture while also shaping it and being shaped by it. Thomas P. Oates and Travis Vogan present essays focused on the intersections across sport, power, and resistance in the North American sports world.
Topics range from Black coaches in the National Football League to disordered eating within distance running to transgender athletes' fight to participate in sports. The editors have organized the contributions into three sections. Part one probes how sports build communities that foster belonging as well as exclusion. The essays in part two explore multiple forms of resistance in sports through various performances and representations. In the final section, essayists analyze more explicit efforts to use sports as a platform for activism from various political viewpoints. Throughout, the works nurture and demonstrate a sensibility that encourages humanistic, critical, and interdisciplinary inquiry.
Wide-reaching and accessible, Sports, Power, and Resistance explores timely issues while demonstrating the value of blending perspectives to better understand the games we play and watch.
Contributors: Ali Bouterse, Adrian Burgos, Jr., Michael L. Butterworth, Noah Cohan, Douglas Hartmann, Victoria E. Johnson, Abraham I. Khan, Jason Kido Lopez, Theresa Runstedtler, Jaime Schultz, Samantha N. Sheppard, and Travers
Topics range from Black coaches in the National Football League to disordered eating within distance running to transgender athletes' fight to participate in sports. The editors have organized the contributions into three sections. Part one probes how sports build communities that foster belonging as well as exclusion. The essays in part two explore multiple forms of resistance in sports through various performances and representations. In the final section, essayists analyze more explicit efforts to use sports as a platform for activism from various political viewpoints. Throughout, the works nurture and demonstrate a sensibility that encourages humanistic, critical, and interdisciplinary inquiry.
Wide-reaching and accessible, Sports, Power, and Resistance explores timely issues while demonstrating the value of blending perspectives to better understand the games we play and watch.
Contributors: Ali Bouterse, Adrian Burgos, Jr., Michael L. Butterworth, Noah Cohan, Douglas Hartmann, Victoria E. Johnson, Abraham I. Khan, Jason Kido Lopez, Theresa Runstedtler, Jaime Schultz, Samantha N. Sheppard, and Travers
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
Baltimore
United States
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Illustrations
8 black and white images and 3 charts
Dimensions
Height: 229 mm
Width: 152 mm
ISBN-13
978-0-252-04994-1 (9780252049941)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Persons
Thomas P. Oates is a professor in the Department of American Studies and School of Journalism & Mass Communication at the University of Iowa. He is the author of Football and Manliness: An Unauthorized Feminist Account of the NFL. Travis Vogan is a professor in the School of Journalism & Mass Communication and Department of American Studies at the University of Iowa. He is the author of LeRoy Neiman: The Life of America's Most Beloved and Belittled Artist.
Content
Introduction
* Thomas P. Oates and Travis Vogan
Part One: Imagining Belonging
Chapter One
* Abraham Khan, "The Racial Contract, the Discourse of Ignorance, and Black Coaches in
the National Football League"
Chapter Two
* Michael L. Butterworth, "The Team that United a City: Sports Documentaries and the
Rhetorical Construction of Unity"
Chapter Three
* Theresa Runstedtler, "White Hopes in a Black Game: Race and the 1974 NBA Finals"
Chapter Four
* Victoria E. Johnson, "'I Was Raised on the Sport: Football and Female Expertise"
Part Two: Athletes and Resistance
Chapter Five
* Jaime Schultz, "Women's Distance Running, Disordered Eating, and Sport Autopathography"
Chapter Six
* Adrian Burgos, "In Clemente's Wake: Afro-Latino Players and the Quest for Respect"
Chapter Seven
* Noah Cohan, "Raising a Glass Helmet: How Black Athletes and Artists Resist Football's Head Gear"
Chapter Eight
* Samantha N. Sheppard, "'Bout that Action, Boss: Signifying and the Cultural Politics of Marshawn Lynch's Sporting Celebrity and Media Persona"
Part Three: Political Activism
Chapter Nine
* Travers, "Transgender Participation in Sport: The Fight for Inclusion in Public Space"
Chapter Ten
* Jason Kido Lopez, "Weaponizing Sport Ideology: Outkick's 'Anti-Woke' Brand and Women's Sports"
Chapter Eleven
* Douglas Hartmann and Ali Bouterse, "The WNBA and the 2020 Georgia Senate Race: A Multimethod Case Study of the Cultural Power of Sport"
* Thomas P. Oates and Travis Vogan
Part One: Imagining Belonging
Chapter One
* Abraham Khan, "The Racial Contract, the Discourse of Ignorance, and Black Coaches in
the National Football League"
Chapter Two
* Michael L. Butterworth, "The Team that United a City: Sports Documentaries and the
Rhetorical Construction of Unity"
Chapter Three
* Theresa Runstedtler, "White Hopes in a Black Game: Race and the 1974 NBA Finals"
Chapter Four
* Victoria E. Johnson, "'I Was Raised on the Sport: Football and Female Expertise"
Part Two: Athletes and Resistance
Chapter Five
* Jaime Schultz, "Women's Distance Running, Disordered Eating, and Sport Autopathography"
Chapter Six
* Adrian Burgos, "In Clemente's Wake: Afro-Latino Players and the Quest for Respect"
Chapter Seven
* Noah Cohan, "Raising a Glass Helmet: How Black Athletes and Artists Resist Football's Head Gear"
Chapter Eight
* Samantha N. Sheppard, "'Bout that Action, Boss: Signifying and the Cultural Politics of Marshawn Lynch's Sporting Celebrity and Media Persona"
Part Three: Political Activism
Chapter Nine
* Travers, "Transgender Participation in Sport: The Fight for Inclusion in Public Space"
Chapter Ten
* Jason Kido Lopez, "Weaponizing Sport Ideology: Outkick's 'Anti-Woke' Brand and Women's Sports"
Chapter Eleven
* Douglas Hartmann and Ali Bouterse, "The WNBA and the 2020 Georgia Senate Race: A Multimethod Case Study of the Cultural Power of Sport"