Welcome
The Institute for the Study of Sport, Society and Social Change's mission is to enrich the lives of its students, to transmit knowledge to its students along with the necessary skills for applying it in the service of our society, and to expand the base of knowledge through research and scholarship.
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It Is Time: From Protest to Policies, Programs, and Progress - A Paper Summarizing the Challenges and Options faced by Athlete Activists was written by Dr. Harry Edwards in 2018 as a response, as education, and as a call to action for athletes to prepare to shift the conversation. It was a call for leaders and organizations that a shift in their mindset and response to athletes and social conditions is necessary to promote social change in sport and society. In this second annual "virtual" conference, ISSSSC will discuss the social activist work of Dr. Edwards through an examination of a pivotal year of social movements, social change, and the sporting voices of athletes. This year’s virtual conference will host keynote panels, change agent organizations, sharing of athlete activist experiences, and educational teachings with ISSSSC’s Words to Action workshops. Moreover we invite our allies, supporters, and novice to sports justice to develop their understanding, and grow in their ability and leadership to promote change.
Day 2 | Friday, October 22, 2021
Moderators
Call to Action Panelists
Voices of Sport & Social Action
Dave Zirin On The Intersection of Sports & Protests | SportsNet (2020)
#JoinTheConversation with Social Action Initiatives
Teach the Black Freedom Struggle Campaign
Teachers around the United States face the challenge of how to teach in the midst of the pandemic and a rebellion in defense of Black lives.
Students are turning to teachers to help them make sense of this new reality. Textbooks and the traditional curriculum are of no help as they hide the long history of white supremacy and the Black Freedom Struggle.
The Teach the Black Freedom Struggle campaign of the Zinn Education Project (coordinated by Rethinking Schools and Teaching for Change) supports teachers with free lessons for teaching about racism and anti-racist struggles, distribution to school districts of the book Teaching for Black Lives, teacher study groups, a podcast, online classes for teachers, and more.
Athletes for Impact | Athlete Manifesto
As an athlete and leader with the opportunity to influence my local community, I recognize my responsibility to use my voice and resources to make a difference. I understand the critical role athletes can play as catalysts for social change. I am committed to supporting initiatives that bring people together and educate in ways that can actively transform our local neighborhoods and communities. As an Athlete for Impact and champion for change, I agree to the following #A4I principles:
The Zinn Education Project & Sports
A People’s History of Sports in the United States
Dave Zirin offers a chronicle of larger-than-life sporting characters and dramatic contests and what amounts to an alternative history of the United States as seen through the games its people played. Through Zirin’s eyes, sports are never mere games, but a reflection of — and spur toward — the political conflicts that shape American society.
Not Just a Game: Power, Politics & American Sports
Not Just a Game “will be especially useful for those who teach courses on the history and politics of sport in the U.S. My sense is that teachers and scholars have been caught up in an endless repetition of the same three examples — Muhammad Ali, Jim Brown, and the Black Power salute at 1968 Olympics — whenever they want to prove Zirin’s point that sports and politics do mix. Certainly, these are important stories, and Not Just a Game gives them the attention they deserve. But the documentary does one better by demolishing the sanitized narratives of athletes like Billie Jean King, Jackie Robinson, and Pat Tillman — athletes who, unlike Ali and Brown, rarely get discussed outside the context of vapid references to ‘tolerance’, ‘colorblindness’, or ‘service to country’. Hopefully, the movie will cause some discomfort for those who, like many of my students, want desperately to believe that the sports they hold so dear are just a game. — Sean Dinces, “Putting the Politics Back into Sport,” Dissident Voice, February 23rd, 2011
Research, Articles, and Resources to Support Your Action Efforts & Social Change
Books + Articles
Jesse Hagopian (Editor) | Rethinking Schools
Haopian (Co-Editor) | Black Lives Matter at School
Hagopian (Co-Editor) | Teaching for Black Lives
Haopian (Editor) | More Than a Score: The New Uprising Against High-Stakes Testing
Dave Zirin | What's My Name, Fool?: Sports and Resistance in United States
Zirin | Welcome to the Terrordome: The Pain, Politics and Promise of Sports
Zirin | Bad Sports: How Owners Are Ruining the Games We Love
Zirin | The John Carlos Story: The Sports Moment That Changed the World
Zirin | Game Over: How Politics Has Turned the Sports World Upside Down
Connect with SJSU's Institute for the Study of Sport, Society and Social Change at www.sjsu.edu/wordstoaction