Amy Bass

Professor, Chairperson
Amy Bass, Professor of Sport Studies

914.323.5127

Founder's Hall, G37

Amy Bass is a professor of sport studies, where her interests focus on sport, culture, and politics, and chair of the division of social science and communication. She received a PhD with distinction in history with a comparative in cultural studies from Stony Brook University and did her undergraduate work at Bates College.  Her first book, Not the Triumph but the Struggle: The 1968 Olympic Games and the Making of the Black Athlete, is considered a standard-bearer for those interested in studying sport from a cultural perspective.  Her followup, In the Game, solidified that reputation.  Her third book, Those About Him Remained Silent: the Battle over W.E.B. Du Bois, received Honorable Mention from the National Council on Public History.

Her most recent work, ONE GOAL: A Coach, A Team, and the Game That Brought a Divided Town Together, was named a best book of 2018 by the Boston Globe and Library Journal, and was featured on the Today Show, NPR’s “The Takeaway,” “Midday,” “Under the Radar,” and “Only a Game,” and in Sports Illustrated and ESPN’s The Undefeated, as well as other national media.  It has been optioned by Netflix.  In its starred review of the book, Kirkus called ONE GOAL “an edifying and adrenaline-charged tale,” while the Wall Street Journal declared it “the perfect parable for our time,” and the Globe & Mail dubbed it “magnificent and significant.”  

Bass edits her own series, “Sporting,” for Temple University Press.  In mainstream media, she has written for Slate, Salon, and The Christian Century, and is a frequent contributor for CNN, both in print and in studio, and worked across eight Olympic Games for NBC Sports, winning an Emmy Award for Live Event Turnaround at the London Olympic Games.

Equal Play: Gender & Sport
Ethics in Sports
Sport & Social Change
Sport Stories
Sport Communication & Media

History, PhD, Stony Brook University
History, MA, Stony Brook University
History, BA, Bates College
Williams College Mystic Seaport Maritime American Studies Program

ONE GOAL: A Coach, a Team, and the Game That Brought a Divided Town Together
Hachette Books, 2019 
Author, Book
Link to Book

 

Not the Triumph but the Struggle: The 1968 Olympic Games and the Making of the Black Athlete
University of Minnesota Press, 2004 
Author, Book
Link to Book

 

Those About Him Remained Silent: the Battle over W.E.B. DuBois
University of Minnesota Press, 2009 
Author, Book
Link to Book

 

In the Game: Race, Sport, and Society in the 20th Century
Palgrave MacMillan 
Author, Book 
Link to Book

 

"Active Radicals: the Political Athlete in the Contemporary Moment"
The Routledge History of American Sport (Routledge: 2016, Linda Borish et. al. eds.) 
Chapter 
Link to Book

 

"We Believe: the Anatomy of Red Sox Nation"
Rooting for the Home Team: Essays on Sport, Community, and Identity (U of Illinois Press: 2003, Dan Nathan, ed.) 
Chapter

 

“How A High School Soccer Team United A Racially Divided Town”
Sports Illustrated 
Article 
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"More than a Feel Good Tale"
The Undefeated 
Article 
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"The State of the Field: Sport History and the 'Cultural Turn'" 
Journal of American History (Vol. 101, No. 1, June 2014) 148-171 
Article 

 

"Calling Nature A Cheat: the Case of Dutee Chand" 
The Allrounder 
Article, November 03, 2014

 

"Objectivity Be Damned, or Why I Go to the Olympic Games: A Hands on Lesson in Performative Nationalism"
South Atlantic Quarterly (2006, 105:2): 349-371 
Article 

 

US Women's Soccer Team to the World: We Got This 
CNN Opinion 
Article, July 02, 2019
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US Gold Medalists' Pan Am Protests are the Right Stand to Take
CNN Opinion 
Article, August 12, 2019
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"The Sochi Olympics Will Be Corrupt, Troubling....and Fabulous" 
Slate 
Article, February 16, 2014

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"Visualizing World Peace through the Olympic Truce" 
The Christian Century 
January 29, 2014 

 

"How Magic Johnson's Diagnosis Changed HIV/AIDS in America"
Slate 
Article, March 14, 2014

National Endowment for the Humanities Faculty Development Grant, 2016

Learning Associate, Bates College, 2014

Emmy Award, “Outstanding Live Event Turnaround: Games of the XXX Olympiad,” National Academy for Television Arts and Sciences, 2013

National Council on Public History, Honorable Mention, 2011

New York University Faculty Network Grant, 2005-2006

Fellow, Institute for Ethics in Public Life, Plattsburgh State University, 2003