Photo by Brian Lee
ules Boykoff writes on a range of subjects, including political activism, the Olympic Games, and climate change. He is the author of six books on the Olympics—What Are the Olympics For? (Bristol University Press, 2024), The 1936 Berlin Olympics: Race, Power, and Sportswashing (Common Ground, 2023), NOlympians: Inside the Fight Against Capitalist Mega-Sports in Los Angeles, Tokyo, and Beyond (Fernwood, 2020), Power Games: A Political History of the Olympics (Verso, 2016), Activism and the Olympics: Dissent at the Games in Vancouver and London (Rutgers University Press, 2014), and Celebration Capitalism and the Olympic Games (Routledge, 2013). He also wrote two books on the suppression of political dissent—Beyond Bullets: The Suppression of Dissent in the United States (AK Press, 2007) and The Suppression of Dissent: How the State and Mass Media Squelch USAmerican Social Movements (Routledge 2006)—and co-authored with Kaia Sand Landscapes of Dissent: Guerrilla Poetry & Public Space (Palm Press, 2008).
Boykoff writes across academic disciplines, publishing peer-reviewed articles in fields such as political science, sociology, geography, environmental studies, and history.
His work has been published in journals like Social Movements Studies, PS: Political Science and Politics, Contemporary Social Science, Antipode, Human Geography, New Political Science, Capitalism Nature Socialism, Sociology of Sport Journal, International Review for the Sociology of Sport, Global Environmental Change, and Oregon Historical Quarterly.
He has written for outlets such as the Guardian, the New York Times, New Left Review, The Nation, the Los Angeles Times, the Washington Post, and Street Roots.
Boykoff is also a poet. He is the author of three full-length poetry collections— Fireworks (Tinfish Press, 2018), Hegemonic Love Potion (Factory School, 2009), and Once Upon a Neoliberal Rocket Badge (Edge Books, 2006)—as well as numerous chapbooks. He also collaborated with visual artist Jim Dine on The Slow Motion Underneath (Steidl Editions, 2008).
Boykoff holds a Ph.D. in political science from American University. He currently teaches political science at Pacific University in Oregon. He lives in Portland with his partner Kaia Sand and their daughter Jessi Wahnetah.
You can contact Jules Boykoff at boykoff at pacificu dot edu.