Jules Boykoff

In 2019, Boykoff was inducted into the Wisconsin Soccer Hall of Fame.

Boykoff has been called “one of the biggest names in international Olympic Games academia." He is the author of 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 has written op-eds on Olympic politics for the Guardian, the New York Times, the San Francisco Chronicle, and elsewhere. He has also appeared on the BBC, Democracy Now!, and NHK TV in Japan to discuss the Olympic Games.

Boykoff is currently a professor of Politics and Government at Pacific University, Oregon. In 2007 and 2009, students selected him as recipient of the Trombley Award for teaching excellence. He also held a visiting professor position at Whitman College in Walla Walla, Washington during the 2004–2005 school year.

Boykoff has appeared on various radio shows, including Democracy Now!, Alternative Radio, Living on Earth, CounterSpin, The Thom Hartmann Program, and Media Matters with Bob McChesney to discuss the intersection of politics, the media, and global warming. He is the author of two books on the suppression of 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).

Boykoff is also a published poet. He is the author of Once upon a Neoliberal Rocket Badge (Edge Books, 2006) and his poem “Commandment #8” was named 2006 Sexiest Poem of the Year by Philadelphia poet CA Conrad. With his longtime partner/wife Kaia Sand, who is also a poet, Boykoff runs The Tangent Reading Series in Portland, Oregon.

Common course topics taught by Boykoff include US politics, the politics of surveillance, mass-media and politics, and the politics of literature and poetry. In November 2006, he spoke at the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Nairobi, Kenya, "COP 12". In An Inconvenient Truth, Al Gore mentioned work Boykoff co-authored with his brother Maxwell Boykoff (Oxford University, Environmental Change Institute) on US media coverage of global warming.

At the college level, Boykoff played two years for the University of Wisconsin before crossing to the University of Portland. After graduating he was drafted in 1993 by indoor soccer team Portland Pride of the Continental Indoor Soccer League (CISL). He also played with National Professional Soccer League team Milwaukee Wave. In all he played four seasons of indoor professional soccer.

At the age of 19, he played for the United States men's national under-23 soccer team in the 1990 Toulon Tournament. The United States Soccer Federation entered the 1990, 1991 and 1992 editions in preparation for the 1992 Summer Olympics football tournament.

Jules Boykoff (born September 11, 1970) is an American academic, author, and former athlete. He is a former professional soccer player. His research focuses on the politics of the Olympic games, social movements, the suppression of dissent, and the role of the mass media in US politics, especially regarding coverage of climate change issues.