Keystone College Press and Keystone College’s Northeastern Pennsylvania Institute for Sport Studies have announced the launch of the American Sport Heritage book series. The series is dedicated to publishing books on numerous personalities, events, and social issues that shaped America’s sporting past and continue to influence its present.
The book series focuses on sport within the context of broader American social and cultural issues including, industrialization and de-industrialization, rural sport, journalism, consumerism, violence, race, gender, and social class. Although the editors are seeking submissions on all aspects of America’s sporting heritage, priority will be given to projects focused on Pennsylvania.
The American Sport Heritage series is sponsored by Keystone College’s Sport and Recreation Management (SRM) Program. Dr. Brad Congelio, SRM Undergraduate Program Coordinator and co-editor, said the series will provide books that are both entertaining and informative.
“Few topics capture the American imagination quite like sport,” Dr. Congelio explained. “Sport is thoroughly rooted in our society and deserves more scholarly attention than it currently receives. This series is our way of providing a platform for that sort of rigorous inquiry.”
SRM Graduate Program Coordinator and co-editor Dr. MacIntosh Ross believes the American Sport Heritage series has enormous potential for writers hailing from Northeastern Pennsylvania.
“With our emphasis on Pennsylvania and Keystone’s location on the borders of Wyoming and Lackawanna counties, I think we can expect to generate some new and exciting scholarship on the history of sport right here in NEPA,” he said. “There are plenty of folks out there with important stories to tell. They just need some support and encouragement. That’s where we come in. I think this is the beginning of something really special.”
The American Sport Heritage series is one of several exciting developments to emerge from Keystone College’s SRM program in recent years. In 2015, Keystone added its master’s degree program in Sport Leadership and Management, offering online instruction from internationally recognized faculty. The following year, the SRM program opened the NEPA Institute for Sport Studies, significantly increasing the resources available, not only to the sport management students at Keystone, but to the regional community as a whole.
Introduced in 2016, Keystone College Press publishes scholarly works by members of Keystone’s faculty, as well as other writers and scholars, including faculty members at other regional colleges and universities.
The Keystone College Press and NEPA Institute for Sport Studies invite book proposal submissions from academics, journalists, and sports enthusiasts, and intend to publish two volumes per year. For more information on the American Sport Heritage series please contact Dr. MacIntosh Ross (mac.ross@keystone.edu) or Dr. Brad Congelio (bradley.congelio@keystone.edu)
