Wrestling With the Academy: Future Directions for the Cultural Politics of Sport.

This article addresses the current challenges and potential revitalization of the study of the cultural politics of sport, emphasizing the structural constraints within academia that discourage critical, contextual, and politically engaged research. The authors, early-career scholars in physical cultural studies, argue for shifting focus away from elite, commercialized "uber-sport" toward nonelite, everyday sporting practices to reveal hidden political dynamics shaping sport and physical culture. They advocate for embracing storytelling as a methodological tool and for scholars to engage in collective organizing and scholar-activism both within academic institutions and broader communities to enact structural change. Ultimately, the article calls for transforming academic norms and labor conditions to support rigorous, politically committed cultural politics scholarship that can challenge hegemonic sport formations and foster more inclusive, just futures.