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Riding the Lines: Academia, Public Intellectual Work, and Scholar-Activism

2018; Human Kinetics; Volume: 35; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1123/ssj.2018-0017

1543-2785

Jules Boykoff,

Management and Organizational Studies

This article expands a plenary lecture I delivered at the North American Society for the Sociology of Sport's 2017 conference in Windsor, Canada. 1 Windsor sits on the traditional territory of the Three Fires Confederacy of First Nations, comprised of the Ojibwa, the Odawa, and the Potawatomi peoples.Mentioning this fact is no mere historical courtesy; it is meant to acknowledge these groups' continued existence and resistance in the face of white supremacy today."Imperialism," writes Linda Tuhiwai Smith (2012, p. 20), "still hurts, still destroys and is reforming itself constantly."The fightback against imperialism and colonialism is also ever-evolving, taking on new targets, including the Olympic Games.Across the continent from the territory of the Three Fires Confederacy, in British Columbia, First Nations peoples played a driving role in activist efforts challenging the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, an episode of contention I'll discuss in more detail.In this article, I explore how, in my work on the politics of the Olympic Games, I press ahead, adhering to the methods and codes of rigorous scholarly work, while also trying to create space for vigorous activism with an ethical metric of social justice.I describe how in this ever-present and perpetually evolving effort to navigate academia, I often oscillate between public intellectual work and scholar-activism.Along the way, I will offer five lessons that I have learned through trial and error.But first, I just want to start by noting what an extraordinary time it is to be doing sport sociology.After all, in the last few years we have witnessed a marked uptick in the willingness of highprofile athletes to take public stands on hot-button issues.WNBA players took the lead in the summer of 2016, speaking out on racial inequality and police brutality.For instance, in mid-July 2016, players on the Minnesota Lynx and New York Liberty wore Black Lives Matter t-shirts during warm-ups to honor Alton Sterling and Philando Castile, two African American men shot dead by police.When the league fined them, they didn't back down, and eventually the league rescinded the penalties. 2Three days later, NBA stars Carmelo Anthony, LeBron James, Chris Paul, and Dwyane Wade took the stage at the ESPY Awards and encouraged athletes to engage in social activism. 3Of course, there's Colin Kaepernick's well-known decision to take a knee, beginning in fall 2016 when he was the quarterback of the San Francisco 49ers of the NFL, in order to make a stand against racialized police violence and generalized inequality.He also pledged to donate $1 million to organizations fighting oppression, and he followed through, doling out significant chunks of money to groups like Mothers Against Police Brutality, Coalition for the Homeless, and the Mni Wiconi Health Clinic Partnership at Standing Rock.