The general purpose of Engaging Sports is to provide content that helps readers interpret and understand events and issues occurring in the context of sport and physical culture. Contributions should include analysis that is clearly grounded in and informed by scholarship in the sociology of sport, presented in a way that “translates” that scholarship for a public audience.

It may be helpful for authors to think of a hook to a current/recent event, upcoming date, or anniversary of a notable event when writing contributions for the site. Overall, authors should think of the piece as an opportunity to translate sociology of sport content for a public audience in such a way that helps readers better understand sport and physical culture.

When writing a contribution for Engaging Sports, authors should consider the following:

  • Contributions should be approximately 700 to 1000 words in length. This length allows a member of the general public to read and understand the content in about 5 minutes.
  • Contributions should be written using language and a writing style that is easily accessible for a member of the general public. When writing, it may be helpful to envision a first-year university student with no background in social science as a potential reader.
  • When you refer to theory or research findings, do so in a narrative style in which you clearly explain the theory/research rather than using traditional academic citations. If you are referring to a specific piece of scholarship, you may include hyperlinked text that the reader can click on to view the original article being referenced.
  • Writers are encouraged to identify one or two photos that can be posted along with the article (with appropriate captions and photo attribution). Photos must be either creative commons licensed (as found using openverse), in the public domain, free stock images that are unlicensed (such as from pexels, pixabay), or owned personally by the author. If a submission is analyzing a specific image directly, it may be appropriate to use a licensed image under fair use guidelines.
  • For examples of how to “translate” academic scholarship for public consumption, prospective writers are encouraged to view posts appearing on sites such as the Contexts blog, the Conversation, and the Gender & Society blog.
  • At the end of their submission, all authors should include a biographical note that lists their current position, briefly describes their academic interests/expertise, and provides a link to their institutional bio page (if applicable). Authors can also provide links to their social media accounts if they wish.
  • To submit a contribution, please send your submission (with any hyperlinks inserted) as a Microsoft Word file to EngagingSports@gmail.com. Please also attach any photos (or include hyperlinks to the photos), along with appropriate captions and photo attribution, that you wish to use with the submission. All submissions will be reviewed by an editor and a reviewer(s) with expertise in an area related to the submission prior to publication.