Call for Chapters

            The Routledge Handbook of Hip Hop and Sport, Culture, and Activism

Description: The Routledge Handbook of Hip Hop and Sport, Culture and Activism addresses the critical need for a comprehensive academic survey of Hip Hop’s connection to sport as a preeminent sociological and political force among Millennials and Generation Z. This handbook maps the emerging critical terrain where Hip Hop intersects with the sports-industrial complex, digital activism, and the persistent structures of racial capitalism and white supremacy. As the culture enters its second half-century, it serves as an emergent space for self-expression and identity formation, both to hegemonic and counter-hegemonic ends.

The leading objectives of this volume are to delineate how Hip Hop’s relationship with sport provides narrative resources for youth to explore their social realities in the context of late-stage capitalism and its bedfellows: white supremacy and patriarchy. This handbook explores both the route and roots of Hip Hop expression through the lens of the African diaspora and the historical relationship between Black expressive history and social movements. This handbook is also interested in the ways in which Hip Hop’s relationship with sport can be oriented both towards liberation and political conservatism, particularly in the context of Hip Hop’s historical and presentist embrace of Donald Trump and his representative movements.

This project aims to both engage Hip Hop’s historical relationship with sports (professional and amateur) as well as its contemporary shifts,such as the institutionalization of breaking in the 2024 Olympics and the rise of representation activism in major sports leagues (NBA, NFL) that create new tensions between cultural authenticity and corporate appropriation. It is intended to define the current state of theory and establish a foundation for future scholarship across the interdisciplinary fields of hip-hop studies, sport management, and Africana studies. 

Since this project is a handbook and not an anthology, the chapter topics have already been pre-selected by the editors. However, we encourage submissions that engage the specific areas of expertise of each contributor, and the contributor is welcome to interpret the proposed topics according to their own research and experience. The targeted audience for this handbook are advanced high school students and undergraduates, so chapters should be written with this audience in mind.  We invite abstract submissions from Hip Hop practitioners, sport sociologists, scholars, graduate students, postgraduate researchers, and early career researchers. 

Details for Submission: Abstracts of 250-300 words for the chapters listed below must be submitted by October 31st, 2026. Microsoft Word or PDF formats will be accepted. When submitting your abstract, please include your name, affiliation, email address, title of chapter, and short biography (100 words). Authors will be notified of their acceptance by November 30th, 2026. Full chapters of 4,000-6,000 words (including references) are due by April 30th, 2027. For further questions, contact Dr. Micah J. Dobson (mjdobson92@gmail.com ) and Dr. Tyler Bunzey (tylerbunzey@gmail.com). 

                                                                            Table of Contents

Section 1: Hip-Hop: A Cultural Politic

• Chapter 1: The Context of Hip-Hop’s Roots and Routes in the Early 1970s 

• Chapter 2: Political Movements that Impacted Hip-Hop’s Foundation 

• Chapter 3: Hip-Hop’s Formal Political Movements like “Rock the Vote”  

• Chapter 4: Hip-Hop and Moral Panic  

Section 2: Hip-Hop Generating Identity 

• Chapter 5: Hip-Hop and Generational Identity in the “Post-Racial” Era 

• Chapter 6: Obama, Neoliberalism, and Hip-Hop Mainstream Partisan Politics

• Chapter 7: From “FDT” to Kodak Black: Hip-Hop’s Complicated Relationship with Trump

• Chapter 8: Hip-Hop and the Black Lives Matter Movement

• Chapter 9: “Alright” and Social Protests Against Police Brutality

Section 3: Hip-Hop and the Sports-Industrial Complex

• Chapter 10: A History of the Relationship Between Hip-Hop and Sport

• Chapter 11: Subculture to Spectacle: The Evolution of Breaking and Olympic Institutionalization

• Chapter 12: Ice Cube, The Big Three, and Mogul “Activism”

• Chapter 13: Jay-Z and the Problematics of the Roc Nation-NFL Partnership

Section 4: Representing: Hip-Hop and Sport 

• Chapter 14: The Politics of Aesthetics: Street Fashion, the Tunnel Walk, and Racialized Pleasure 

• Chapter 15: Generational Agency: From Michael Jordan’s Brand to LeBron’s "Representation Activism”

• Chapter 16: The WNBA and Queering Hip-Hop Aesthetics

• Chapter 17: Hip-Hop Dance as Art and Sport