Journal Articles
Special Journal Issue Edited
Richard Giulianotti and Susan Brownell, eds., British Journal of Sociology Special Issue on “Olympic and World Sport: Making Transnational Society?,” June 2012, vol. 63, no. 2.
“Why 1984 Medalist Li Ning Lit the Flame at the Beijing 2008 Olympics: The Contribution of the Los Angeles Olympics to China's Market Reforms,” International Journal of the History of Sport 32(1)(2015): 128-143.
Dong Jinxia 董进霞and Susan Brownell 包苏珊, “Why We Need Social Theory to Understand Sport Mega-Events/为什么需要用社会科学理论来解读大型赛事,” (published in English and Chinese) 《体育与科学》[Journal of Sports and Science], 35(4)(July 2014): 110-115.
“‘Brand China’ in the Olympic Context: Communications Challenges of China’s Soft Power Initiative,” Javnost – The Public, Journal of the European Institute for Communication and Culture 20(4)(2013): 65-82.
“The Olympic Public Sphere: The London and Beijing Opening Ceremonies as Representative of Political Systems,” International Journal of the History of Sport 30(11)(2013): 1315-27.
Niko Besnier and Susan Brownell, “Sport, Modernity, and the Body,” Annual Review of Anthropology 41(October 2012): 443-459.
“Human Rights and the Beijing Olympics: Imagined Global Community and the Transnational Public Sphere,” British Journal of Sociology 63(2)(2012): 306-27.
Richard Giulianotti and Susan Brownell, “Olympic and World Sport: Making Transnational Society?,” Introduction to the special issue, British Journal of Sociology 63(2)(2012): 199-215.
Zhang Min张敏 and Susan Brownell包苏珊, 《大国崛起的盛典 – 当下视野中的美国1904年圣路易斯世博会》[“When a Superpower Holds a Coming-Out Party: America’s 1904 St. Louis World’s Fair in Current Perspective”], 《上海大学学报》[Journal of Shanghai University] 18(2)(Mar 2011): 119-30.
“Beijing’s Olympic Education Program: Re-Thinking Suzhi Education, Re-Imagining an International China,” China Quarterly, vol. 197(2009): 44-63.
Susan Brownell, “Western-centrism in Olympic Studies and its Consequences in the 2008 Beijing Olympics,” “Pathways: Critiques and Discourses in Olympic Research,” Proceedings of the Ninth International Symposium, Olympika: The International Journal of Olympic Studies, vol. 17, 2008, 20-30.
Susan Brownell包苏珊, 《论北京模式 - 东方特色的奥林匹克教育 ，发展中国家模式》, [“On the Beijing Model: Olympic Education with Eastern Characteristics”]《教育科学研究》[Educational Science Research] December 2007, 18-20.
“Challenged America: China and America – Women and Sport, Past, Present and Future,” International Journal of the History of Sport, Special Issue on Sport and American Society: Insularity, Exceptionalism and “Imperialism,” 22(6)(Nov 2005): 1173-1193.
“The View from Greece: Questioning Eurocentrism in the History of the Olympic Games,” Journal of Sport History 32(2)(summer 2005): 203-216. An article in a forum of the same title organized by Brownell. Also by Brownell, “Eurocentrism and the Olympic Games,” 199-201, “Eurocentrism is about more than Language – response to Guttmann,” 231-32.
“The Problems with Ritual and Modernization Theory, and Why We Need Marx: A Commentary on From Ritual to Record.” Sport History Review 32(1) (May 2001): 28-41.
“The Body and the Beautiful in Chinese Nationalism: Sportswomen and Fashion Models in the Reform Era.” China Information XIII(2/3) (Autumn/Winter 1998-1999): 36-58.
“Mainstreaming Gender, Washing Away Feminism.” Response to Jankowiak, “Chinese Women, Gender, and Sexuality: A Critical Review of Recent Studies.” Bulletin of Concerned Asian Scholars 31(1) (January-March 1999): 29-40.
“Representing Gender in the Chinese Nation: Chinese Sportswomen and Beijing’s Bid for the 2000 Olympic Games.” Identities: Global Studies in Culture and Power special issue on “The Nation/State and its Sexual Dissidents” 2(1): 223-247(1996).
“Cultural Variations in Olympic Telecasts: China and the 1992 Olympic Games and Ceremonies,” The Journal of International Communication special issue on “Olympian Communication” 2(1): 26-41 (1995).
“Qing Dynasty Grand Sacrifice and Communist National Sports Games: Rituals of the Chinese State?,” Journal of Ritual Studies 7(1):45-64 (1993).
“Sports in Britain and China, 1850-1920: An Explanatory Overview,” The International Journal of the History of Sport 8(2):114-120 (1991).
Chapters in Books
“Neoliberalism, the Gift Economy, and Gender,” in Sport, Migration, and Gender in the Neoliberal Age, ed. Niko Besnier, Domenica Gisella Calabrò, Daniel Guinness (New York, Routledge, 2021), 249-56.
“Structure, Anti-structure, and Communitas in the Classroom: Notes on Embodied Theory,” in Experiential and Performative Anthropology in the Classroom: Engaging the Legacy of Edith and Victor Turner, ed. Pamela R. Frese and Susan Brownell (London: Palgrave MacMillan, 2020), 1-20.
Susan Brownell and Pamela R. Frese, “The Foundations of Experiential Performance Pedagogy,” in Experiential and Performative Anthropology in the Classroom: Engaging the Legacy of Edith and Victor Turner, ed. Pamela R. Frese and Susan Brownell (London: Palgrave MacMillan, 2020), 1-20.
Pamela R. Frese and Susan Brownell, “Moving Forward,” in Experiential and Performative Anthropology in the Classroom: Engaging the Legacy of Edith and Victor Turner, ed. Pamela R. Frese and Susan Brownell (London: Palgrave MacMillan, 2020), 187-91.
“The Beijing Olympics: Retrospective: Reflection on the Impact of the Global Media” Media, Sport, Nationalism: East Asia: Soft Power Projection Via the Modern Olympic Games, ed. Keiko Ikeda, Tianwei Ren, Chang Wan Woo (Berlin: Logos, 2019), 269-92.
“The View from China: Accepting Olympism, Rejecting Human Rights,” in The Ideals of Global Sport: From Peace to Human Rights, ed. Barbara J. Keys (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2019), 178-99.
“Figure Skating in Southern California: From Frontier to Epicenter,” in LA Sports: Play, Games, and Community in the City of Angels, ed. Wayne Wilson and David K. Wiggins (University of Arkansas Press, 2018), 71-92.
“Olympic Hospitality Houses in Rio/Casas de Hospitalidade no Rio,” in Mega Events Footprints – Past, Present, and Future, ed. Leonardo Mataruna Dos Santos and Bianca Gama Pena (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil: Engenho, 2017), 53-70.
“Wushu and the Olympic Games: ‘Combination of East and West’ or Clash of Body Cultures?,” in Perfect Bodies: Sports, Medicine and Immortality, ed. Vivienne Lo (London: British Museum, 2012), 61-72.
“The Beijing Olympics as a Turning Point? China’s First Olympics in East Asian Perspective,” in The Olympics in East Asia: Nationalism, Regionalism, and Globalism on the Center Stage of World Sports, ed. William Kelly and Susan Brownell (New Haven, CT: Yale Council on East Asian Studies Monograph Series, 2011), 185-203.
“Why Were Chinese People so Angry about the Attempts to Seize the Torch in the International Torch Relay?,” 81-87; “China’s Olympic Road,” 147-161. “Why was Yao Ming Fined?,” 226, in China in 2008: A Year of Great Significance, ed. Kate Merkel-Hess, Kenneth L. Pomeranz, Jeffrey N. Wasserstrom (Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield, 2009).
“The Global Body Cannot Ignore Asia,” in The Body in Asia, ed. Bryan S. Turner and Yangwen Zheng (New York and Oxford: Berghahn Books, 2009), 23-39.
“‘Sport and Politics Don’t Mix’: China’s relationship with the IOC during the Cold War,” in East Plays West: Essays on Sport and the Cold War, ed. Stephen Wagg and David Andrews (New York: Routledge, 2007), 261-78.
“Food, Hunger and the State.” The Cultural Politics of Food and Eating: A Reader, Ed. James L. Watson and Melissa L. Caldwell (Malden, MA: Blackwell, 2005), 251-58. Excerpt from Brownell, Training the Body for China.
“China Reconstructs: Cosmetic Surgery and Nationalism in the Reform Era,” in Asian Medicine and Globalization, ed. Joseph Alter (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2005), 132-150.
“Longer Contemplation,” in New Reflections on Anthropological Studies of (greater) China, ed. Xin Liu, Institute of East Asian Studies (University of California - Berkeley, 2004), 78-84.
“China and Olympism,” in Post-Olympism? Questioning Sport in the Twenty-First Century, ed. John Bale and Mette Krogh Christenson (Oxford, UK: Berg Press, 2004), 51-64.
“Making Dream Bodies in Beijing: Athletes, Fashion Models, and Urban Mystique in China,” in China Urban: Ethnographies of Contemporary Culture, ed. Nancy N. Chen, Constance D. Clark, Suzanne Z. Gottschang, Lyn Jeffery (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2001), 103-23.
“Why Should an Anthropologist Study Sports in China?,” in Games, Sports and Cultures, ed. Noel Dyck (Oxford, UK: Berg Press, 2000), 43-64.
Bruce Kidd, Robert Edelman, Susan Brownell, “Comparative Analysis of Doping Scandals: Canada, Russia, and China,” in Doping in Elite Sport: The Politics of Drugs in the Olympic Movement, ed. Wayne Wilson and Edward Derse (Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics, 2001), 153-188.
“Gender and Nationalism in China at the Turn of the Millennium,” in China Briefing 2000: The Continuing Transformation, ed. Tyrene White (Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe in cooperation with The Asia Society, 2000), 195-232.
“Strong Women and Impotent Men: Sports, Gender, and Nationalism in Chinese Public Culture,” in Spaces of Their Own: Women’s Public Sphere in Transnational China, ed. Mayfair Mei-hui Yang, (Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press, 1999), 207-231
“Thinking Dangerously: The Person and his Ideas,” in Body Cultures: Essays by Henning Eichberg, ed. J. Bale and C. Philo, (Routledge, 1998), 22-44.
“The Stadium, the City, and the State: Beijing,” in The Stadium and the City, ed. J. Bale and O. Moen, (Stafforshire, UK: Keele University Press, 1995), 95-110.
“Sports,” in Handbook of Chinese Popular Culture, ed. Wu D. and P. Murphy (Greenwood Press, 1994), 113-36.
“The Changing Relationship between Sport and the State in the People's Republic of China,” in Sport...The third millennium: Proceedings of the International Symposium, Quebec, Canada, May 21-25, 1990, ed. F. Landry, M. Landry, M. Yerles (Les Presses de l'Universite Laval, 1991), pp. 295-301.
E-Journal Articles & Online Commentaries
“Olympic Boycotts in the 21st Century,” Georgetown Journal of International Affairs (GJIA), journal of the Walsh School of Foreign Service (October 15, 2021).
Susan Brownell and Niko Besnier, Series on the Rio de Janeiro Olympics, SAPIENS: Anthropology/Everything Human (e-magazine for anthropology sponsored by the Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research), August 2016.
The Untold Story Behind Fiji’s Astonishing Gold Medal
Do the Olympics Make Economic Sense?
Zika at the Rio Games: Pandemic or Panic?
Rio’s Olympic Festival in the Streets
Your Olympic Team May Be an Illusion
“More than Sport: China vs. the U.S. in World Cup Soccer, 1999 and 2015,” China-U.S. Focus, June 29, 2015.
“Olympic Games and Asia’s Rise.” YaleGlobal online, November 27, 2014.
“When Politics Become Olympic Art.” The Diplomat, July 31, 2012.
“Social impact of the 2008 Olympic Games on China,” Sportand dev.org, June 1, 2012.
“Flaws of Central Planning,” in “Where are China’s Soccer Stars?,” Room for Debate, New York Times online, June 29, 2010.
“The Beijing Olympics as a Turning Point? China’s First Olympics in East Asian Perspective,” The Asia-Pacific Journal: Japan Focus, Vol. 23-4-09 (June 8, 2009).
“America’s and Japan’s Olympic Debuts: Lessons for Beijing 2008 (and the Tibet Controversy),” The Asia-Pacific Journal: Japan Focus (May 16, 2008).
Blog Postings
The China Beat (2008)
Huffington Post (Beijing Olympics link, 2008)
Encyclopedia & Handbook Articles
“China, Sport, and Globalization,” The Palgrave Handbook of Globalization and Sport, ed. Joseph Maguire, Katie Liston, Mark Falcous (Palgrave Macmillan, 2021)(forthcoming).
Niko Besnier & Susan Brownell, "Sport," in The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Anthropology [online], ed. Matei Candea, Hildegard Diemberger, Sian Lazar, Joel Robbins, Andrew Sanchez, Rupert Stasch, and Felix Stein (University of Cambridge, 2019).
Susan Brownell and Niko Besnier, “Value and Values in Global Sport,” in Oxford Research Encyclopedia in Anthropology [online], ed. Mark Aldenderfer (Oxford University, October 2019).
“Sport in China,” in The Oxford Handbook of Sports History, ed. Robert Edelman and Wayne Wilson (Oxford University Press, 2017), 241-56.
“Sport since 1750,” in The Cambridge History of the World, Merry Wiesner-Hanks, editor-in-chief, vols. 8 and 9: Production, Connection, and Destruction, 1750-present, ed. Kenneth Pomeranz and J.R. McNeill (Cambridge University Press, 2015), 225-48.
Robert Edelman, Anke Hilbrenner, and Susan Brownell, “Sport Under Communism,” in The Oxford Handbook of the History of Communism, ed. Stephen A. Smith (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014), 602-616.
Susan Brownell and Niko Besnier, “Gender,” Handbook of Sociocultural Anthropology, James G. Carrier and Deborah B. Gewertz, eds. (Bloomsbury Press, 2013), 239–258.
“Sport Ethnography: A Personal Account,” in The Sage Handbook of Fieldwork, ed. Dick Hobbs and Richard Wright (Sage, 2006) 243-254. Reprinted in Ethnography in Context, vol. 3, Sport, the Body, and Leisure, ed. Dick Hobbs (Sage, 2011).
“Physical Culture, Sports and the Olympics,” in The Cambridge Companion to Modern Chinese Culture, ed. Kam Louie (Cambridge University Press, 2008), 339-360.
“Multiculturalism.” Berkshire Encyclopedia of World Sport (Berkshire Publishing, 2005), 1051-53.
“Victor Turner” and “John MacAloon,” in Biographical Dictionary of Anthropology, ed. Vered Amit. Routledge (London: Routledge; 2004), 326-327, 521-523.
“Women and Popular Dance Forms in China,” in International Encyclopedia of Women and Sports, ed. Karen Christensen, Allen Guttmann, and Gertrud Pfister. MacMillan (2001), 225-226.
Chinese to English Translations
Shanghai Declaration (a document advocating sustainable urban development. Issued in the name of 246 participating nations and organizations, it became the blueprint for China’s successful application for a UN-designated World Cities Day to commemorate the Expo. Its drafting was overseen by the Coordinating Bureau of the Expo.)
Report on Beijing’s Olympic Education Programs, Beijing Municipal People’s Government, Olympic Education Standing Office official report (Beijing: Beijing Sport University Press, 2010).
Olympic Studies Reader, ed. Hai REN, Lamartine DaCosta, Ana Miragaya. HE Zhenliang, “The Development of the International Olympic Movement since the 1980s and the Issues it Faces,” LU Yuanzheng, “Hope Lies in the Revival of Eastern Sport Culture,” REN Hai, “Olympic Education and Cross Cultural Communication,” (Beijing: Beijing Sport University Press, 2010).
The Olympics and China [large-format illustrated album] (Beijing: Chinese Olympic Committee, 2008).
Liang Lijuan, He Zhenliang and China’s Olympic Dream (Beijing: Foreign Languages Press, 2007)(511 pages) [Biography of He Zhenliang by his wife; he was the PRC’s senior sports diplomat and first member of the International Olympic Committee. The book recounts his career, including working as French interpreter for Zhou Enlai, Ping Pong Diplomacy, China’s return to the Olympic Games, and Beijing’s Olympic bids.]
“The People’s Republic of China” (translated, edited, and co-wrote with Cao Xiangjun), Ed. L. Chalip, A. Johnson, and L. Stachura, National Sports Policies: An International Handbook (Greenwood Press, 1996), 67-88.
“A Summary of Sport Sociology Research in the PRC,” by Kong Xiang’an, Niu Xinghua, and Qiu Bo (translated and edited). International Review for the Sociology of Sport 25(2): 93-108 (1990).