Co-Editors
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- Dr. Adam Ehsan Ali (aali45@uwo.ca) and
- Dr. Umer Hussain (umer.hussain@wilkes.edu)
In the extant scholarship, there remains a paucity of sociological literature on the role and place of sport within the Arab World and the Middle East that centralizes a critical Muslim perspective. This is significant given both their immense geographical scope and the continued and emerging social and political issues within the Muslim world, in which sport and physical cultures play an important role.
These issues include, but are not limited to, the following: the entrance of Arab states into the Western sporting landscape, such as Saudi Arabia’s partnership with the PGA tour and Qatar’s hosting of the 2022 FIFA World Cup; the lasting impact of colonial legacies and ongoing Western interventions in Arab and Middle Eastern regions and the role of sport in perpetuating and challenging the resulting inequities, violence, and mass displacement; the groundbreaking participation of the first hijab-wearing women footballer, Nouhaila Benzina, in the 2023 Women’s World Cup, which has reignited Western conversations regarding gender ‘progressiveness’ in Muslim-majority nations; and the role sports have in empowering social movements in Arab and Middle Eastern communities that aim to counter state-sanctioned oppression, challenge Western dominance, catalyze nation-building initiatives, and strengthen community resilience.
As such, our objective is to bring together a diverse community of scholars, both established and emerging, who represent and write about sport and/or physical cultures in the Arab World and Middle East about communities from these regions who are living in diaspora in the West. We are interested in chapter submissions that utilize intersectional, postcolonial, and/or decolonial epistemologies to address one or more of the following questions:
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- What role has or does sport play in Arab/Middle Eastern geopolitics and histories?
- What does a critical Muslim analysis tell us about the experiences of physical cultures in Arab/Middle Eastern contexts and about the meanings such cultures attach to sport participation?
- How is sport positioned within crises of displacement and forced migration within these regions, and how is sport experienced within migrant and refugee communities?
- How is sport for sustainable development defined, understood, and carried out within Arab and Middle Eastern locales.
Deadlines
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- October 31, 2023: 150-Word Maximum Chapter Abstract Proposals and 50-Word Maximum Author Bio(s) to be sent to the co-editors (aali45@uwo.ca, umer.hussain@wilkes.edu).
- November 15, 2023: Notification of Proposal Acceptance
- August 1, 2024: Submission of Full Chapter
Submission Details
All chapter submissions must showcase original research and will undergo a peer-review and editing process before being finalized. Chapters will not exceed 8,000 words (inclusive of references).
Co-Editors
Dr. Adam Ehsan Ali is an assistant professor of sociocultural studies in the School of Kinesiology at Western University in London, Ontario, Canada. His research explores anti-Islamic racism, radicalization and sport in the post-9/11 era, and is grounded in post-colonial, feminist, and critical race theory. His other research projects focus on the role of sport for international development as it pertains to sustainability and the physical environment, and on championing anti-oppressive approaches within the kinesiology and physical education field. Dr. Ali specializes in critical discourse, policy, and media analyses, and his work appears in the Sociology of Sport Journal, Sport, Education, and Society, Diaspora, Indigenous, and Minority Education, and Frontiers in Sports and Active Living.
Dr. Umer Hussain is an assistant professor of sport management at the Sidhu School of Business & Leadership at Wilkes University in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, USA. His areas of research include exploring the intersection of race, religion, and gender in sports. Dr. Hussain has more than nine years of experience in academia and practice. His work has been published in journals such as the European Sport Management Quarterly, International Review of Sociology of Sport, Sport in Society, and Games and Culture.
