Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Reposted by Derek Silva

Nathan Kalman-Lamb

@nkalamb.bsky.social

It was an enormous honour for @derekcrim.bsky.social and I to receive the @nasssbsky.bsky.social Outstanding Book Award for 2024 for our book *The End of College Football: On the Human Cost of an All-American game.*

Pic of Derek Silva, Jason Laurendeau, and Nathan Kalman-Lamb for the NASSS Outstanding Boom Award

November 9, 2025 at 11:47 PM

Reposted by Derek Silva

Nathan Kalman-Lamb

@nkalamb.bsky.social

The Football Association of Ireland has approved a resolution to submit a formal motion to UEFA to suspend Israel.

www.reuters.com/sports/socce...

DUBLIN, Nov 8 (Reuters) - Members of Irish soccer's governing body approved a resolution on Saturday instructing its board to submit a formal motion to UEFA requesting the immediate suspension of Israel from European competitions, a source at the meeting told Reuters.
The resolution cited alleged violations by Israel's Football Association of two provisions of UEFA statutes, namely its failure to implement and enforce an effective anti-racism policy and organisation of clubs in occupied Palestinian territories without the consent of the Palestinian Football Association.

November 8, 2025 at 2:11 PM

Reposted by Derek Silva

Jules Boykoff

@julesboykoff.bsky.social

My latest @theguardian.com: As a genuine soccer fan & generational political talent, freshly elected NYC mayor Zohran Mamdani might be able to achieve the unthinkable: force the FIFA behemoth to share its lucre by targeting its tax exemptions & extreme privilege www.theguardian.com/football/202...

Zohran Mamdani has upended US politics. Now he should take on Fifa | Jules Boykoff

New York’s mayor-elect has taken on powerful institutions. With the World Cup taking place in his city, he should challenge Fifa next

www.theguardian.com

November 8, 2025 at 2:48 PM

Reposted by Derek Silva

Mathew Foresta

@mathewforesta.bsky.social

FIFA, the IOC, & essentially all world sports governing bodies are forever and irreparably shamed by their failure to ban Israel from international competition. They are complicit in the genocide by sportswashing it. Israeli Olympic Judoka literally wrote messages on artillery shells bound for Gaza.

Nathan Kalman-Lamb @nkalamb.bsky.social · 3d

22 authors in a new OA peer-reviewed article in Soc of Sport Journal:

Israel is committing *athleticide* in Gaza, "an indispensable component of the overall genocidal campaign enforced by the Israeli settler colonial regime and bankrolled by the US."

journals.humankinetics.com/view/journal...

November 7, 2025 at 3:17 PM

Derek Silva

@derekcrim.bsky.social

In this open access peer-reviewed article, I and 21 of my sports studies colleagues argue that Israel is committing athleticide in Gaza.

journals.humankinetics.com/view/journal...

November 7, 2025 at 3:37 PM

Reposted by Derek Silva

Nathan Kalman-Lamb

@nkalamb.bsky.social

This story is so twisted. A Toronto student group hosted an event to celebrate literal members of the IDF (aka war criminals) and now they are claiming to be victims because they were protested.

It isn’t + never will be antisemitic to decry Israeli genocide or to hold those responsible accountable.

A pro-Israel student group in Toronto, Canada, says its event with IDF veterans was “stormed” by anti-Israel protesters, causing injuries.

Student Supporting Israel at Toronto Metropolitan University posts videos on social media showing the altercation between the pro-Israel students and masked protesters at the off-campus event at which former IDF soldiers were due to speak.

An anti-Israel activist chants, “We refuse to allow war criminals in our city,” while the pro-Israel students shout, “Get out,” and “Call 911.”

November 6, 2025 at 3:41 PM

Derek Silva

@derekcrim.bsky.social

Absolutely packed house to listen to @nasssbsky.bsky.social President Jay Laurendeau’s presidential address to kick off #nasss2025

November 6, 2025 at 6:50 PM

Reposted by Derek Silva

Nathan Kalman-Lamb

@nkalamb.bsky.social

If you are an academic—instructor or grad student—please sign this letter of solidarity for Professor Farhana Sultana who has been vilified by the right for calling CK what he was.

They are trying to come for her job.

This is the time for solidarity.

forms.gle/8MayBcCmtYg1...

Letter of Support for Professor Farhana Sultana

As scholars within and beyond academia, we write in solidarity with academic freedom of expression with our colleague, Dr. Farhana Sultana, an internationally recognized scholar and tenured Full Profe...

forms.gle

November 5, 2025 at 5:50 PM

Derek Silva

@derekcrim.bsky.social

On route to Vancouver! Join us if you can at SFU this evening!

Nathan Kalman-Lamb @nkalamb.bsky.social · 5d

Last call for @nasssbsky.bsky.social friends and Vancouver friends:

@derekcrim.bsky.social, @lindseyafreeman.bsky.social, and I will be talking college football at Simon Fraser University THIS AFTERNOON from 5:30-7:30.

I promise it will be worth your time!

Is it time to abolish college football?

A conversation with Nathan Kalman-Lamb, Derek Silva, and Lindsey Freeman

Wednesday, November 5
5:30pm-7:30pm
West Mall Centre 2200
SFU Burnaby Campus

November 5, 2025 at 12:40 PM

Reposted by Derek Silva

Nathan Kalman-Lamb

@nkalamb.bsky.social

Last call for @nasssbsky.bsky.social friends and Vancouver friends:

@derekcrim.bsky.social, @lindseyafreeman.bsky.social, and I will be talking college football at Simon Fraser University THIS AFTERNOON from 5:30-7:30.

I promise it will be worth your time!

November 5, 2025 at 12:39 PM

Reposted by Derek Silva

Sparrows for Palestine

@sparrows4palestine.bsky.social

🐦🔎UofT Engineering Guest Professor Participated in Gaza Genocide & Illegal Invasion of Lebanon
Shahar Kvatinsky was Visiting Professor at UofT from 2023 to 2025. During this period, he left twice to serve as Lieutenant Colonel in the IOF's Golani Brigade
substack.com/home/post/p-...

UofT Engineering Guest Professor Participated in Gaza Genocide and Illegal Invasion of Lebanon

Dr Shahar Kvatinsky was Visiting Professor at the University of Toronto from 2023 to 2025. During this period, he left twice to serve as Lieutenant Colonel in the IOF's Golani Brigade.

substack.com

November 4, 2025 at 10:16 AM

Derek Silva

@derekcrim.bsky.social

being a Toronto sports fan sucks

November 2, 2025 at 4:25 AM

Reposted by Derek Silva

Nathan Kalman-Lamb

@nkalamb.bsky.social

Dave Snow is out here telling a government committee that racist researchers are being sidelined.

But that's not the best part.

The best part is that the government committee is treating this as constructive feedback.

www.ourcommons.ca/documentview...

Dave Snow:
I think that's exactly right. The Canadian Institutes of Health Research, CIHR, whose definition of research excellence includes language of inclusivity and diversity on its research excellence framework page, has that research is excellent when it's inclusive, equitable, diverse, anti-racist, anti-ableist and anti-colonial in approach and impact.
Now, probably most of us would say, “I'm not ableist. I'm not racist. I'm not a colonialist,” Those are good things, but these terms in academia.... I am familiar with progressive academia. These are very specific frameworks, often unfalsifiably formed, that have a particular way of looking at the world and are not, first and foremost, about knowledge creation. They're built on particular assumptions about how society is governed and how it ought to be changed. When you adopt that as your framework for all health and medical funding across the country, you are going to necessarily discourage certain forms of knowledge creation and encourage activist research that is not designed to help us achieve better medical and health outcomes and knowledge.
I heard a presentation earlier today about how we don't want to leave anyone on the sidelines. Well, this is leaving on the sidelines scholars who don't use an anti-racist, anti-ableist and anti-colonial approach in their hard science research on health and medicine. If I had one recommendation of what should go within the agencies, it would be that component of that research excellence framework from the beginning.

October 31, 2025 at 3:23 PM

Reposted by Derek Silva

Childless Dog Lady is PISSED OFF 🍉🌺

@sgbuggs.bsky.social

LMAOOOOOOOOOO

show me a researcher who doesn’t feel welcome in Canada lmao

Nathan Kalman-Lamb @nkalamb.bsky.social · 10d

The committee hosted Steven Pinker, who said, "Canada has the reputation now of being more woke than the United State... because of some of these EDI programs and policies that are being put in place, researchers do not feel welcome here."

This fantasy is being deployed to create anti-EDI policy.

Tony Baldinelli:
Well, it's interesting. We've also had some other professors come here.
For example, a Harvard professor, Steven Pinker, said that in terms of research capability, Canada has the reputation now of being more woke than the United States, and that in terms of losing scholars, because of some of these EDI programs and policies that are being put in place, researchers do not feel welcome here. They look for opportunities south of the border instead of looking for research opportunities here.
How would you respond to that?

October 31, 2025 at 3:11 PM

Derek Silva

@derekcrim.bsky.social

How depraved do you have to be to call equity, diversity, and inclusion “parasitic.”

Nathan Kalman-Lamb @nkalamb.bsky.social · 10d

"There has been an autocorrection of all this diversity, inclusion and equity stuff in the United States. ...I see no autocorrection taking place in Canada. If anything, I see the doubling down of all of the parasitic nonsense in Canada."

A quote from Gad Saad to the committee, inspiring the motion

Tony Baldinelli (Niagara Falls—Niagara-on-the-Lake, CPC):
Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you to the witnesses for being with us today.
I'm going to begin with Dr. Hewitt from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council.
We recently had Dr. Gad Saad before this committee. He said during his testimony that:
...there has been an autocorrection of all this diversity, inclusion and equity stuff in the United States. ...I see no autocorrection taking place in Canada. If anything, I see the doubling down of all of the parasitic nonsense in Canada.
...science is a fully meritocratic thing. Nobody gives a damn about your identity markers. The best people should be doing the best science, period.
Would you agree with that statement or not?

October 31, 2025 at 2:44 PM

Derek Silva

@derekcrim.bsky.social

Canada is always just a small step behind the US with this shit — and as I’ve we’ve seen, if we don’t fight this with everything we have we will be told to drink bleach by our government soon.

Nathan Kalman-Lamb @nkalamb.bsky.social · 10d

The Canadian Parliamentary Standing Committee on Science and Research is launching a US-style attack on EDI in Tri-Council funding.

As part of this attack, they are demanding disclosure of confidential demographic info + reviewer comments of all Canadian researchers who have applied b/w 2000-2025.

Maxime Blanchette-Joncas:
I'm tabling the following motion:
That the committee request the three funding councils, namely the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC), the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC), and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), as part of the study on the impact of federal funding allocation criteria on research excellence in Canada, to provide it with the disaggregated data of all submitted applications, whether funded or not, for all student and faculty funding programs from the master's level onwards for applications made between 2020 and 2025. That this data include (1) demographic data of applicants and collaborators, including applicants' responses to the equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI) questionnaire, (2) the institutions and departments of applicants, including the institutions of collaboration, (3) the language of the application, (4) all data regarding the type of application and project content (application year, grant program, discipline, title, summary, amount requested by the applicant), as well as (5) the identity of the evaluation committee, comments, opinions, scores assigned to applications for each criterion, and (6) the outcome of the application and the amount awarded. That the three funding councils submit all this data to the committee within 15 days following the adoption of this motion, in an Excel spreadsheet format.

October 31, 2025 at 2:39 PM

Reposted by Derek Silva

Nathan Kalman-Lamb

@nkalamb.bsky.social

💀💀💀 a GOP congressman is trying to cap college football coach pay essentially at under $300k annually

www.sportico.com/leagues/coll...

For a university like LSU, where in-state tuition and fees total $27,876, the COACH Act would cap the Tigers’ next football boss’ annual compensation at roughly $278,760. That’s about what a mid-tier Group of Five linebackers coach might make. (Heck, it’s scarcely more than the Speaker of the House’s current salary of $223,500.)

By contrast, Kelly was earning $9.5 million in annual guaranteed money.

In a phone interview with Sportico, Baumgartner contends that, while dramatic, there is nothing unreasonable about the figure he is proposing—which would bring it in line with pre-1990s coaching pay—given that college athletics remains, in his view, “subsidized public good.”

the worst person you know made a great point meme

October 28, 2025 at 7:54 PM

Reposted by Derek Silva

Nathan Kalman-Lamb

@nkalamb.bsky.social

If you’re coming to @nasssbsky.bsky.social in Vancouver and arriving the day before (or if you are already in the Vancouver area), @derekcrim.bsky.social and I would love to see you at @SFU on Wednesday, November 5 at 5:30 pm PT for this book talk and conversation with @lindseyafreeman.bsky.social.

October 28, 2025 at 12:10 PM

Reposted by Derek Silva

roxanne panchasi

@rpanchasi.bsky.social

Very excited for "Is it time to abolish college football?" a conversation with @nkalamb.bsky.social @derekcrim.bsky.social & @lindseyafreeman.bsky.social at SFU's Burnaby Campus on November 5th (17:30-19:30)

You can register here:
www.eventbrite.ca/e/is-it-time...

Is it time to abolish college football?

A conversation with Nathan Kalman-Lamb, Derek Silva, and Lindsey Freeman.

www.eventbrite.ca

October 26, 2025 at 11:02 PM

Reposted by Derek Silva

Nathan Kalman-Lamb

@nkalamb.bsky.social

This "remarkable book...deserves to be read widely... the clarity of argument, the power of the players quotes, and the accessibility of Kalman-Lamb and Silva’s writing made the book easy to read and fascinating to think about."

Hugely grateful for this review in @leisurestudies.bsky.social.

BOOK REVIEW
The end of college football: on the human cost of an all-american game, written
by Nthan Kalman- Lamb and Derek Silva, Chapel Hill, USA, University of North Carolina
Press, 2024, 252 pp., (paperback); ISBN 9781469683461; $24.95
It is unlikely that Nathan Kalman-Lamb or Derek Silva will be asked by the current US
administration for their thoughts on college football or college sports more generally, but it is
equally unlikely that they will lose any sleep over this situation. On 24 July 2025, President
Trump signed an Executive Order with the aim of ‘protecting college sports’, and to prevent
‘student-athletes’ from being viewed and treated as professional athletes. Kalman-Lamb and
Silva prefer the term ‘campus athletic workers’ to reflect the (unpaid) work that is undertaken
on college campuses by students and instead of looking for ways to ‘protect’ sports, instead
call for ‘the end of college football’ in their remarkable book of the same name. The book
draws on 25 semi-structured in-depth interviews with former NCAA (National Collegiate

Athletic Association) college footballers who played at a high level to highlight the exploita-
tion and harm that occurs on campuses as a result of the money and prestige involved in the

sport at this level.
The introductory chapter sets out some of the wider context of the book, and college
football more generally, whilst also introducing and explaining key concepts that support the
arguments advanced in the book. They acknowledge earlier work in this area and argue that
their work is ‘grounded in a theoretical framework that recognises college sport as part of
a system of US racial capitalism’ (p.7), also bringing in work that highlights the ‘plantation
dynamics’ that see ‘predominantly white institutions’ (PWIs) exploit and draw profit from the
bodies of predominantly young Black men. The authors also highlight that the perspectives of
former college footballers have often been neglected in these discussions.
The…

have – speaking to former footballers – and also explain their own biographies and
positionality and the potential impact that this may have on the research discussions

and their interpretations of those discussions. The use of quotations from the inter-
views are excellent and, whilst some readers may question whether they are too long

or too frequent, the authors argue otherwise. They explain that it was important for
these voices to be foregrounded in the book, given the lack of attention they receive
in other discussions about college football stating that ‘reproducing the precise speech
acts . . . is the single most important intervention we can make: to share experiences

that did not previously exist in the public sphere’ (p.11). In an excellent methodolo-
gical appendix, they acknowledge that some readers or critics will point towards the

relatively small sample size and thus their works’ ‘non-representativeness and lack of
generalizability’. In response to such arguments, the authors invite others to expand
on their work and note that they will ‘ecstatically accept a reference to this book as
rudimentary’ (p.208) if this happens.
In adopting this open approach, Kalman- Lamb and Silva, in my opinion, very
effectively head off any discussion of potential shortcomings, weaknesses or criticisms
of their work. At times, whilst reading the book, I wondered what some of the
coaches would have to say about the situations articulated by the players, and this
would be valuable work, but it was also not the point of the book. Arguing for more
of some things or fewer of other things in relation to this book, or suggesting things
be done differently, merely feels like suggesting that a different book should have been
written, and that is absolutely not a view I share.
The book deserves to be read widely. I am not completely au fait with the intricacies of
college football, and do not follow it closely at all. Despite this distance, the clarity of
argument, the power …

October 24, 2025 at 3:56 PM

Derek Silva

@derekcrim.bsky.social

Sports aren’t political — except they are. In every sense of the word.

That fact alone should have us reflect on how politics plays an integral role in sports — and how the same pressures that prevent others from speaking out prevent athletes from doing it.

So we asked them about it.

Nathan Kalman-Lamb @nkalamb.bsky.social · 25d

Ever wonder why so few athletes in North America have spoken about Israel's genocide in Gaza?

We did too... so we asked some to find out.

Answers include "fear of losing sponsorships," "the McCarthyist response from government,” and “Zionists gaslighting and doxxing people."

Most athletes have chosen to ‘shut up and dribble’ over Gaza | Nathan Kalman-Lamb and Derek Silva

Why have so few athletes spoken about Gaza? Fear of backlash, lost sponsors and being branded antisemitic all help explain the silence

www.theguardian.com

October 17, 2025 at 4:06 PM

Reposted by Derek Silva

Dr Katherine Blouin

@isisnaucratis.bsky.social

This is major.
Respect to @nkalamb.bsky.social and @derekcrim.bsky.social for writing this important piece about athletes' silent complicity w genocide

Nathan Kalman-Lamb @nkalamb.bsky.social · 25d

Ever wonder why so few athletes in North America have spoken about Israel's genocide in Gaza?

We did too... so we asked some to find out.

Answers include "fear of losing sponsorships," "the McCarthyist response from government,” and “Zionists gaslighting and doxxing people."

Most athletes have chosen to ‘shut up and dribble’ over Gaza | Nathan Kalman-Lamb and Derek Silva

Why have so few athletes spoken about Gaza? Fear of backlash, lost sponsors and being branded antisemitic all help explain the silence

www.theguardian.com

October 17, 2025 at 3:04 PM

Reposted by Derek Silva

Jules Boykoff

@julesboykoff.bsky.social

"'Only a handful of North American athletes have spoken out against Israel’s assault on Gaza, a silence shaped by fear, sponsorship & the policing of speech." In this illuminating essay @nkalamb.bsky.social & @derekcrim.bsky.social talk to high-level athletes to figure out exactly why.

Nathan Kalman-Lamb @nkalamb.bsky.social · 25d

Ever wonder why so few athletes in North America have spoken about Israel's genocide in Gaza?

We did too... so we asked some to find out.

Answers include "fear of losing sponsorships," "the McCarthyist response from government,” and “Zionists gaslighting and doxxing people."

Most athletes have chosen to ‘shut up and dribble’ over Gaza | Nathan Kalman-Lamb and Derek Silva

Why have so few athletes spoken about Gaza? Fear of backlash, lost sponsors and being branded antisemitic all help explain the silence

www.theguardian.com

October 17, 2025 at 2:10 PM

Reposted by Derek Silva

Nathan Kalman-Lamb

@nkalamb.bsky.social

Ever wonder why so few athletes in North America have spoken about Israel's genocide in Gaza?

We did too... so we asked some to find out.

Answers include "fear of losing sponsorships," "the McCarthyist response from government,” and “Zionists gaslighting and doxxing people."

Most athletes have chosen to ‘shut up and dribble’ over Gaza | Nathan Kalman-Lamb and Derek Silva

Why have so few athletes spoken about Gaza? Fear of backlash, lost sponsors and being branded antisemitic all help explain the silence

www.theguardian.com

October 17, 2025 at 11:18 AM

Reposted by Derek Silva

David Storey

@davidstoreygeog.bsky.social

'Only a handful of North American athletes have spoken out against Israel’s assault on Gaza, a silence shaped by fear, sponsorship and the policing of speech'
@nkalamb.bsky.social & @derekcrim.bsky.social
www.theguardian.com/sport/2025/o...

Most athletes have chosen to ‘shut up and dribble’ over Gaza | Nathan Kalman-Lamb and Derek Silva

Why have so few athletes spoken about Gaza? Fear of backlash, lost sponsors and being branded antisemitic all help explain the silence

www.theguardian.com

October 17, 2025 at 12:40 PM

Light upyour news

Sign in to Lightnews

Sign up to start reading

Connect Bluesky

Connect with Bluesky

Light up
your news