Call for Nominations 2026

NASSS is pleased to announce that the call for nominations for the 2026 NASSS Outstanding Book Award is now open. Please consider nominating a book published in 2025 for this important award. Please note the due date for nominations is May 31st, 2026.

The NASSS Outstanding Book Award is presented to the author(s) of the most outstanding book published in the previous calendar year. To be eligible for this award, a book must be nominated by a NASSS member and meet all of the following criteria:

• Books must be scholarly analyses of a sport related issue or phenomenon written from a sociological, anthropological, or related perspective.
• Books must have been published in the calendar year preceding the year of the award. This year, for the 2026 Outstanding Book Award, eligible books are those published in 2025.
• Books must not be edited collections or texts, but rather scholarly analyses of a sport related issue/phenomenon written from a sociological/anthropological (or related) perspective.
• Previously nominated books may be re-nominated if published in 2025.
• Books from authors who are not NASSS members are eligible.
• Nominations for the award must be made by a NASSS member.

Nomination Process

To submit a nomination, please send an e-mail message to committee chair, Michele K. Donnelly ([email protected]) by May 31st, 2026. The message should include – at minimum – the book’s title, author(s), and publisher. Nominators may also choose to include a brief supporting statement about the book.

Previous Winners

2025, Nathan Kalman-Lamb (University of New Brunswick) and Derek Silva (University of King’s College), The End of College Football: On the Human Cost of an All-American Game.

2024, Richard M. Southall, Mark S. Nagel, Ellen J. Staurowsky, Richard T. Karcher, & Joel G. Maxcy. The NCAA and the Exploitation of College Profit Athletes: An Amateurism that Never Was.

2023, Lisa Uperesa (University of Auckland), Gridiron Capital: How American Football Became a Samoan Game.

2022, Jennifer McClearen (University of Texas-Austin), Fighting Visibility, Fighting Visibility: Sports Media and Female Athletes.

2021, Courtney Szto (Queen’s University), Changing on the Fly: Hockey through the Voices of South Asian Canadians.

2020, Hugo Ceron-Anaya (Lehigh University), Privilege at Play: Class, Race, Gender and Golf in Mexico.

2019, Matthew Atencio, Becky Beal, E. Missy Wright, & ZáNean McClain (Cal State-East Bay), Moving Boarders: Skateboarding and the Changing Landscape of Urban Youth Sports.

2018, Nicole Willms (Gonzaga University), When Women Rule the Court: Gender, Race, and Japanese American Basketball.

2017, Lindsay Parks Pieper (Lynchburg College),  Sex testing: Gender policing in women’s sports.

2016, James Holstein (Marquette University), Richard Jones (Marquette University), and George Koonce (Marian University). Is There Life After Football? Surviving the NFL.

2015, Alan Klein (Northeastern University), Dominican Baseball: New Pride, Old Prejudice.

2014, Jeffrey Montez de Oca (University of Colorado, Colorado Springs), Discipline and Indulgence: College Football, Media, and the American Way of Life During the Cold War.

2013, Katie Fitzpatrick (University of Auckland), Critical Pedagogy, Physical Education and Urban Schooling.

2012, Joshua Newman (Florida State University) & Michael Giardina  (Florida State University), Sport, Spectacle, and NASCAR Nation: Consumption and the Cultural Politics of Neoliberalism.

2011, Emily Chivers Yochim (Allegheny College), Skate Life: Re-Imagining White Masculinity.

2010, Shari L. Dworkin (UCSF) and Faye Linda Wachs (Cal Poly Pomona) - Body Panic: Gender, Health and the Selling of Fitness.

2009, Thomas F. Carter (University of Brighton) - The Quality of Home Runs.

2008, Earl Smith (Wake Forest University) - Race, Sport and the American Dream.

2007, Pirkko Markula (University of Alberta) and Richard Pringle (University of Waikato) - Foucault, Sport and Exercise: Power Knowledge and Transforming the Self.

2006, Michael D. Giardina (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign) - Sporting Pedagogies: Performing Culture & Identity in the Global Arena.

2005, Sherri Grasmuck (Temple University) - Protecting Home: Class, Race, and Masculinity in Boys' Baseball.

2004, Michael Messner (University of Southern California) - Taking the Field- Women, Men and Sport.

2003, Dan Nathan (Skidmore College) - Saying It's So: A Cultural History of the Black Sox Scandal.

2002, Michael Robidoux (University of Ottawa) - Men at Play: A Working Understanding of Professional Hockey.

2001, Nancy Theberge (University of Waterloo) - Higher Goals: Women's Ice Hockey and the Politics of Gender.

2000, Varda Burstyn (Independent writer) - The Rites of Men: Manhood, Politics, and the Culture of Sport.

1999, Eric Dunning (University of Leicester) - Sport Matters: Sociological Studies of Sport, Violence, and Civilization.

1998, John Sugden (University of Brighton) - Boxing and Society: An International Analysis.

1997, Alan Klein (Northeastern University) - Baseball on the Border.

1996, Jennifer Hargreaves (University of Surrey Roehampton) - Sporting Females: Critical Issues in the History and Sociology of Women's Sports.

1995, Todd Crosset (University of Massachusetts) - Outsiders in the Clubhouse: Class and Gender on the Women's Professional Golf Tour.

1993, Michael Messner (University of Southern California) - Power at Play: Sport and the Problems of Masculinity.