Jules Boykoff is an American academic, author, and former athlete. He is a former professional soccer player. His research focuses on the politics of the Olympic games, social movements, the suppression of dissent, and the role of the mass media in US politics, especially regarding coverage of climate change issues.
Boykoff is currently a professor of Politics and Government at Pacific University, Oregon. In 2007 and 2009, students selected him as recipient of the Trombley Award for teaching excellence. He also held a visiting professor position at Whitman College in Walla Walla, Washington during the 2004–2005 school year. Boykoff has been called “one of the biggest names in international Olympic Games academia." He is the author of Power Games: A Political History of the Olympics, Activism and the Olympics: Dissent at the Games in Vancouver and London and Celebration Capitalism and the Olympic Games. He has written op-eds on Olympic politics for the Guardian, the New York Times, the San Francisco Chronicle, and elsewhere. He has also appeared on the BBC, Democracy Now!, and NHK TV in Japan to discuss the Olympic Games. Boykoff has appeared on various radio shows, including Democracy Now!, Alternative Radio, Living on Earth, CounterSpin, The Thom Hartmann Program, and Media Matters with Bob McChesney to discuss the intersection of politics, the media, and global warming. He is the author of two books on the suppression of dissent: Beyond Bullets: The Suppression of Dissent in the United States and The Suppression of Dissent: How the State and Mass Media Squelch USAmerican Social Movements. Boykoff is also a published poet. He is the author of Once upon a Neoliberal Rocket Badge and his poem “Commandment #8” was named 2006 Sexiest Poem of the Year by Philadelphia poet CA Conrad. With his longtime partner/wife Kaia Sand, who is also a poet, Boykoff runs The Tangent Reading Series in Portland, Oregon. Common course topics taught by Boykoff include US politics, the politics of surveillance, mass-media and politics, and the politics of literature and poetry. In November 2006, he spoke at the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Nairobi, Kenya, "COP 12". In An Inconvenient Truth, Al Gore mentioned work Boykoff co-authored with his brother Maxwell Boykoff on US media coverage of global warming. Boykoff is also co-editor of The Tangent, a politics and art zine.
Personal life
Jules is married to the poet Kaia Sand. They live in Portland, Oregon with their daughter Jessi Wahnetah.
Selected publications
Books
Power Games: A Political History of the Olympics
Activism and the Olympics: Dissent at the Games in Vancouver and London
Celebration Capitalism and the Olympic Games
Hegemonic Love Potion
Landscapes of Dissent: Guerrilla Poetry & Public Space, co-authored with Kaia Sand
Beyond Bullets: The Suppression of Dissent in the United States,
The Suppression of Dissent: How the State and Mass Media Squelch USAmerican Social Movements
Once Upon a Neoliberal Rocket Badge
Recent Scholarly Publications
“Riding the Lines: Academia, Public Intellectual Work, and Scholar-Activism,” Sociology of Sport Journal, Vol. 35, No. 2 : 81–88.
“Protest, Activism, and the Olympic Games: An Overview of Key Issues and Iconic Moments,” International Journal of the History of Sport, Vol. 34, Issue 3–4, : 162–183.
“The Olympics, Sustainability, and Greenwashing: The Rio 2016 Summer Games,” with Gilmar Mascarenhas, Capitalism Nature Socialism, Vol. 27, No. 2 : 1-11.
