The conference focus remains on historical and other humanities-based approaches to the study of exercise, strength, sport training, strength athletes, competitive lifting, the healthful benefits of exercise, and all other aspects of what we call “physical culture” across the millennia. Our hope is that many of you will choose to present in person this year and perhaps also make time to use the Stark’s resources during a visit to Austin. We hope that by meeting together we can learn more about each other, discuss our work, create new collaborations, and help the field of PC studies continue to grow.

In Women, Football and Social Change in Saudi Arabia: Pioneer Player (Bloomsbury), Charlotte Lysa traces the emergence of women's football in Saudi Arabia from the infancy of grassroots women's team in 2005 to the launch of the first official, state-sponsored, competitions in 2020 – a period Saudi Arabia was going through rapid change. In his review, Payam Ansari especially highlights how the author recovers the agency of women whose efforts preceded the highly visible institutional transformation of recent years, while avoiding an overly simple story of either state-led modernisation or grassroots resistance.

This edited collection seeks to bring together critical and interdisciplinary scholarship on how artificial intelligence is reshaping sporting cultures, identities, and experiences. It is concerned with AI as a social and cultural development, examining the relations of power and lived consequences that accompany its use in sport as well as its cultural, social, political, and ethical implications. By examining AI as a technological development embedded within particular social and institutional conditions, the collection will advance understanding of how sport is influencing, and being influenced by, developments in artificial intelligence.

The proposed book emerging from the workshop aims to be the first scholarly volume to present a collection of critical and interdisciplinary studies of the SEA Games using frameworks, approaches, and methods from the social sciences and humanities. Approaching the SEA Games from multiple perspectives (national, historical, institutional, cultural, and political) the volume will ask how the event has collectively been constituted, contested, and transformed as a Southeast Asian sporting institution and practice.

Sport is one of the most significant arenas in which contemporary societies negotiate questions of human dignity, equality, identity, justice, and difference. Beyond competition and physical performance, sport constitutes a privileged space for philosophical, ethical, political, and cultural reflection. DIAPHORA: Sport, Human Rights, and the Ethics of Difference invites scholars, researchers, and practitioners to contribute original chapters exploring the complex relationships between sport, human rights, and the ethical challenges of contemporary societies.

Community physical activity is often discussed as though participation begins with motivation. Research suggests a more complicated picture, which Yiren Wang, MSc Sport Management student at Loughborough University, unfolds in this article for idrottsforum.org. In later life, being active can depend on transport, neighbourhood conditions, confidence, social relationships, cultural expectations and digital access. Effective programmes therefore need to be not only evidence-based, but genuinely accessible and worth returning to.

Full of real-world cases, data and examples and featuring the voices of researchers at all levels, from experienced professors to student researchers doing their thesis, Chris Mackintosh’s edited collection Qualitative Research Methods for Sport Studies (Routledge) introduces the reader to the qualitative methodological journey. Klara Boije af Gennäs, self-professed methods nerd at the end of her own PhD journey, enjoyed reading this book very much and for a number of reasons. She strongly recommends it as a companion on the doctoral journey, and not least for future reference.

idrottsforum’s weekly newsletter gives you the past week’s on-site activities in your mailbox every Monday morning, in the form of a letter with a link to a web page presentation of new publications. Click below to access that page, which also offers you a chance to subscribe to the Monday morning mail in case you’re not already a subscriber. And do friends and colleagues a great favor by telling them about this invaluable and totally free service.

The special issue seeks to explore the complex and dynamic intersections of gender with organizations of sports, a field that remains a powerful site for the negotiation of identities, power relations, and social norms. This issue invites submissions that critically engage with the ways in which gender shapes experiences, opportunities, and representations in professional sports organizations, as well as the (gendered) organizational and institutional structures that govern sports practices.

Sex, Gender Identity and Sport (Routledge), edited by Cathy Devine, addresses the highly contentious debate surrounding sex-based categories in competitive sport. The volume advocates that preserving these categories is essential for ensuring fair competition. In this high-quality review, Alexis Sossa concludes that the book is most valuable not as a definitive resolution to the transgender sports debate, but as a provocation regarding the politics of bodily classification. While its explicitly partisan orientation and tendency to dismiss opposing perspectives as “ideology” leave complex empirical and normative questions unresolved, its enduring contribution lies in insisting that sports politics are inextricably bound to body politics.

The Richmond Gender in Sport Research Centre (RGiSRC), Richmond American University London, and RIASA Leeds are pleased to invite submissions for the fourth annual Breaking Barriers Conference. Taking place on the eve of the Tour de France Femmes Grand Départ in Yorkshire, Breaking Barriers 2027 will bring together academics, students, practitioners, policymakers, community organisations, and industry professionals to explore how sport can contribute to a more equitable, inclusive, and sustainable society.

The Steiner Sports Communication Research Conference is a new, student-focused academic gathering dedicated to traditional and creative scholarship in sports communication. For this inaugural year, the conference is free to attend and will feature student projects exclusively, creating a dynamic, supportive space for emerging voices in the field. Whether your research explores media representation, technology’s influence on sport, or the cultural narratives shaping athletics today, this conference is designed to spotlight your work and spark meaningful conversation.

The University of Copenhagen is reorganising. Every department has been assigned a place in the proposed new structure – except one. For the Department of Nutrition, Exercise and Sports (NEXS), the future is uncertain. Senior management has explicitly raised the possibility of its dissolution. This raises fundamental questions about the future of sport and nutrition research and education in Denmark. It also runs counter to powerful and growing recognition of the importance of sport, exercise and nutrition.

The Centre for Culture, Sport and Events at the University of the West of Scotland is pleased to announce our next FREE ONLINE SEMINAR, which will take place on the 4th of November 2026 at 2pm UK time. The theme for this seminar is “Beyond Access: Rethinking Accessibility at Major Sport Events”, featuring Sophie Fusco McKeown and Dr Liz Carlin.

Boxing, sometimes called the noble art of self-defence, is the world’s oldest contact sport, and its history has been explored in a multitude of books. In his own attempt, 97 Fights: A History of Modern Boxing (Reaktion Books), John Sutherland chronicles 97 bouts, aiming to capture the essence of boxing and its history. Our reviewer Łukasz Muniowski observes that he does so with a tone of poetry and pathos, with emotion and passion. Muniowsky also detects various editorial, logical and factual errors, some of which he details. Nevertheless, our reviewer considers Sutherland’s book a welcome addition to the literature on boxing.

And the winner is… Brisbane! The Games of the XXXV Olympiad will be played out in Brisbane, Australia, in 2032. The decision was made in Tokyo in July 2021, with Brisbane as the only bidder and the first to win unopposed since Los Angeles won the bid for 1984. And with the longest time, 11 years, to get everything in shape for the Games. In his feature article, Jim McKay tells what happened then, and it’s a story of dirty politics, broken promises, and skyrocketing costs for the Games that will be borne by the taxpayers. Maybe not an unusual story to come out of arranging the Olympic Games...

idrottsforum’s weekly newsletter gives you the past week’s on-site activities in your mailbox every Monday morning, in the form of a letter with a link to a web page presentation of new publications. Click below to access that page, which also offers you a chance to subscribe to the Monday morning mail in case you’re not already a subscriber. And do friends and colleagues a great favor by telling them about this invaluable and totally free service.

Sport provides an arena for societal activity: a forum in which politics, the economy, and the third sector meet. Organised sport can thus be understood as a microcosm of public life, encompassing economic activity, civic participation, and identity politics. Although often organised beyond the formal public sector, sport remains closely connected to public governance through public funding, regulation, and expectations of integrity, equality, transparency, participation, legitimacy, and accountability. This edited volume invites scholars to examine this arena as a setting in which public, private, and civil society actors jointly create, contest, and sometimes destroy public value through hybrid arrangements. 

Den 10 mars 2026 publicerade André Horgen en kritisk granskning i essäform av delar av den akademiska friluftslivsforskningen i Norge, på engelska och norska, den senare versionen betitlad ”«Norgisme» – et feilslått ideologisk rammeverk for å forstå norsk friluftsliv”. Syftet var att skapa debatt inom akademin kring hur friluftsliv som forskningsfält utvecklats. Debatten har helt uteblivit i dryga halvåret fram tills nu, när Bjørn Tordsson, som apostroferas flitigt i Horgens kritiska granskning, inkommit med ett debattinlägg. I linje med Forumets publiceringsregler ges Horgen tillfälle att bemöta kritiken direkt efter Tordssons kritik.

The Society for American Soccer History is pleased to announce the 2026 Symposium, to be held online (via Zoom) on Friday, December 4th. We welcome proposals for presentations in PechaKucha format (20 PowerPoint slides [no more than 40 words each] for exactly 20 seconds per slide, or a total of 6 minutes and 40 seconds). Proposals on any aspect relevant to the study of American soccer history are welcome from SASH members. Proposals that summarize research activities related to the 2026 FIFA Men’s World Cup and/or the 2027 FIFA Women’s World Cup are of special interest

This study by Lisen Lehman and Andreas Fröberg aimed to explore how physical education teachers describe their professional scope for action and perceived self-efficacy in creating inclusive teaching for students with visual impairment. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews with five teachers and a web-based survey completed by 20 teachers. Interview data were analysed thematically, while survey responses were analysed descriptively. The findings show that teachers regard inclusion as an integral part of their professional responsibility and employ various adaptations to facilitate participation.

Med sin bok Så vinner vi igen: Att utveckla talanger och svensk idrott (Volante) vill Patrik Brenning visa en väg framåt som inte bara ger oss lyckligare barn och ökad folkhälsa utan även bättre proffsidrottare och landslag – samt i förlängningen gladare fans. Den norske idrottssociologen Mads Skauge har läst Brennings bok och finner att han i mångt och mycket är överens med författaren, såväl när det gäller att definiera problemen som att komma med förslag på lösningar. Brennings bok borde läsas av tränare inom ungdomsidrotten, vare sig de är föräldrar eller inte – men kommer de att göra det, kommer de att ta till sig kritiken?

Jack Black is an international expert on sport and psychoanalysis. Grounded in empirical research and critical analyses of film, television and digital media, his work examines how unconscious investments organise cultural and political life. Across books, articles and collaborative projects, he has explored racism and racialisation, generative AI, comedy, online hate, national identity and the cultural significance of sport. This work is connected by an interest in contradiction: the gap between what institutions and subjects claim to know and the attachments that continue to structure their actions.

The Sports Equity Lab is hosting a Winter School on Women’s Empowerment in Sports, taking place online via Zoom from December 14–18, 2026. We would be grateful if you could share this opportunity with your students and colleagues. Our Winter School is a one-week intensive online program that examines gender equity in sport through the eyes of the people who shape it: athletes, governing bodies, researchers, and the sports industry. Over five days and fifteen sessions, participants move from athletes’ lived experiences through policy, science, and commerce.

Argyro Elisavet Manoli’s edited collection Contemporary Issues in Sports Marketing (Routledge) explores key and topical issues that are emerging in the field of sport marketing, while calling for further attention to the thriving sports industry. Our reviewer, Viktor Magnusson, became instantly interested given the words ‘contemporary’ and ‘issues’ in the title, and he found many exciting issues in the book that were dealt with in ways to satisfy any reader. He is however confused by the claim that the issues would be contemporary given that the articles were written for a journal special issue published in 2018. Although the articles still seem highly relevant, he would have liked to see an editorial comment on that particular issue.