C. Richard King gave a keynote on the history and impact of the usage of Indigenous imagery as mascotry in North American sports in the wake of the #ChangeTheName movement, which sought to have the name of McGill's men's sports teams changed.
C. Richard King is a professor and chair of Humanities, History and Social Sciences at Columbia College Chicago. His research concentrates on the racial politics of culture, especially the articulations of race and sport in post–Civil Rights America. Pushing beyond a black/white paradigm, his work has pushed for a comparative understanding of racialization, particularly in sport and media. Indigeneity, in particular, centers much of his scholarship. This has led him to interrogate the place of indigenous athletes in physical culture and to wrestle with the uses and understanding of Indianness and the ongoing struggles over mascots, team names, and appropriation in sport. He is the author/editor of several books, including "Team Spirits: The Native American Mascot Controversy" (a CHOICE 2001 Outstanding Academic Title), Native Athletes in Sport and Society, and most recently "Redskins: Insult and Brand".
