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Dr. Neftalie Williams is the Director of San Diego State University's Center for Skateboarding, Action Sports, and Social Change. With a background in both academia and a deep personal connection to skateboarding, writing, and photography, Dr. Williams has made significant contributions to the study of skateboarding culture. He has published scholarly works, written op-eds for mainstream publications, and provided commentary for various traditional news outlets and documentaries, including The New York Times, CNN, ABC, Forbes, and the documentary Reaching the Sky featuring Olympian Sky Brown. His research on race and skateboarding, conducted as part of the 2019-2020 USC x Tony Hawk Foundation project, was prominently featured in The Los Angeles Times and The New York Times. Dr. Williams's extensive experience also includes positions at the Annenberg School of Communication and Journalism, as well as serving as a Yale Schwarzman Center Visiting Fellow in Race, Culture & Community. His scholarly expertise is complemented by his personal history as a skateboarder, writer, and photographer, which has led to features in publications like Transworld Skateboarding Magazine and Thrasher Magazine. Currently, Dr. Williams provides consultation on skateboarding and action sports for Disney Studios and Burton Snowboards. He is also a co-founder of the College Skateboarding Educational Foundation (CSEF), a non-profit organization dedicated to providing scholarships for young skateboarders pursuing higher education. Furthermore, he serves on the boards of the Tony Hawk Foundation/The Skatepark Project, Skateistan, McKinnon Center for Global Affairs, and chairs the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee for USA Skateboarding.
""Crisp graphic design, photo portraits, and action shots make [these] stories pop.""--Publishers Weekly, Holiday Gift Guide 2025 ""The Skateboard Life is an urgent affirmation of the power of sport to shape relations, and even to transform the world. In this profound, quick-paced excavation, Dr. Neftalie Williams draws from both his academic training and his work as a skater maven to bestow us with a vivid history of skateboarding culture. Williams tenders an enticing menagerie of skateboarding trailblazers and icons, brocading the past and the present into a powerful tapestry of ingenuity, solidarity, and rebellion. In doing so, he shows us what sport can achieve on this roiling, boiling planet."" --Jules Boykoff, professor of political science at Pacific University, author of What Are the Olympics For? ""A breathtaking new look at the modern skate world. Written with the authenticity and knowledge that only another skater could achieve, this book adds new layers of significance to the experience and cultural understanding of skateboarding."" --Jason Jules, author of Black Ivy: A Revolt in Style ""Professor Neftalie Williams delivers a comprehensive tour-de-force, The Skateboard Life, that etches the importance of the sport into a long future. It is clear to me that this book will become THE reference on the genre."" --Mathieu Bitton, photographer and designer ""The Skateboard Life is an encyclopedia on skate culture, those who have helped create it, and its future icons. It's a fascinating read for anyone interested in the sport, the style, and the history of what makes skateboarding so uniquely authentic."" --Tony Hawk ""There is an expression that great writing communicates by ""showing, not telling."" Dr. Neftalie Williams's The Skateboard Life is a masterwork of this method. Through a vibrant series of biographical sketches, stories, and photos, Dr. Williams shows how this sport holds the capacity to change the world as well as change us. Whether you can perform a crooked grind in your sleep or have never heard of Tony Hawk, The Skateboard Life is for anyone who cares about sports, politics, and the world they inhabit. One of the most important ʽsportsʼ books Iʼve read in some time."" --Dave Zirin, sports editor, The Nation and author of The Kaepernick Effect: Taking a Knee, Changing the World
Olympic Lyon
The Untold Story of the First Gold...
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