Research + Publications
Our research interests include (but are not limited to):
- The health and wellness benefits for skateboarding and action sports participants.
- The increased cooperation and inclusion resulting from the social cohesion produced among skateboarding and action sports' diverse participants.
- The economic and professional development connected to the action sports industry and ancillary fields.
- The artistic, political, and ecologically sustainable dimensions of skateboarding and action sports' ephemera.
Publications
Color in the Lines: the politics and possibilities of US skateboarding culture
By Neftalie Williams
Forthcoming, Spring, 2024; University of California Press, Berkeley
Skateboarding: Past, Present, Future-Perfect
By Neftalie Williams
Forthcoming; Artisan Books
Action Sports and the Olympic Games: From Tokyo, to Paris, Los Angeles and Beyond
By Holly Thorpe, Douglas Booth, Molly Frizzell, Damien Puddle, Neftalie Williams, Belinda Wheaton
Journal of Olympic Studies (Published online: 11 Jan 2024) 5 (1). The University of Illinois Press
Before the Gold: Connecting aspirations, activism, and BIPOC excellence through Olympic skateboarding
By Neftalie Williams
Journal of Olympic Studies (2022) 3 (1): 4–27. The University of Illinois Press
Black & Brown Lives, Big City: Exploring the Legacy of Race, Space and Skateboarding in the City of Angels
By Neftalie Williams
LA8020, Edited by Namik Mačkić; Southern California Institute of Architecture (SCI-arc University)
Exposing for the shade: Skateboarding, Gordon Parks, and me.
By Neftalie Williams
Four Wheels and a Board: The Smithsonian History of Skateboarding (2022) Edited by Betsy Gordon, Jane Gordon; Smithsonian Books
Beyond the Board: Findings from the field
By Zoë B. Corwin, Tattiya Maruco, Neftalie Williams, Robert Reichardt, Maria Romero-Morales, Christine Rocha, and Constanza Astiazaran
University of Southern California (2020)
Symposiums
From Sports Diplomacy to Sportswashing: Navigating Political Possibilities in Global Sports
Thursday, February 22, 2024
University of Texas at Austin, Moody College of Communication
Panel speaker for the McGarr Symposium on Sports and Society.
Perpetual Motion: Connecting Skateboarding & Action Sports Culture to Public Diplomacy
Thursday, November 9, 2023
Utah Sports Diplomacy
Keynote speaker for the the Ambassador John Price & Marcia Price World Affairs Symposium on Sports Diplomacy: Leveling the Socioeconomic Playing Field.