Kyle Kusz

  • Professor
  • Office: Swan Hall, Rm 208B
  • Phone: 401.874.5434
  • Email: kkusz@uri.edu

Biography

Born and raised in Greece, New York, Dr. Kusz attended Ithaca College as a naïve, first generation college student who only planned on playing soccer, taking some classes, and returning home after four years to be a physical educator and coach. Instead, the charismatic teaching of Dr. Stephen Mosher disrupted that plan and led to a life never imagined.

In graduate school, Dr. Kusz was transported to another world replete with new types of people, ways of thinking, languages, norms, and value systems. Part of this otherworldly experience—both disorienting and thoroughly captivating—was his introduction to cultural criticism. In 2003, he came to the Ocean State to work in URI’s Kinesiology department. In fall 2019, he became a faculty member in English with a joint appointment in the Gender and Women’s Studies program.

His research critically examines the complicated roles that sport, media, and popular culture play in social struggles for power in society in particular moments in history. And at least once a week you can find him still trying to learn about life through playing with a soccer ball.

Research

Dr. Kusz’s research focuses on the critical analysis of the racial and gender politics of white masculinities produced at the intersections of sport, media, and popular culture.

Education

  • Ph.D., Kinesiology (Specialization: Cultural Studies of Sport and Physical Activity), University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2003
    Graduate Minor Certificate: Cultural Studies and Interpretive Research.
  • M.S., Kinesiology (Specialization: Cultural Studies of Sport and Physical Activity), University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1996
  • M.S., Sports Studies (Minor: Sociology), Ithaca College, 1994

Selected Publications

Kusz, K. (2020). Notes on the uses of sport in Trump’s white nationalist assemblage. Przeglad Narodowosciowy—Review of Nationalities (Special Issue: ‘Sport as the expression of nations issues’) ISSN: 2543-9391

Oates, T. & Kusz, K. (2019).  My Whole Life is About Winning: The Trump Brand and Political/Commercial Uses of Sport.  In M. Butterworth & D. Grano’s Sport, Rhetoric, & Political Struggle (pp.207-222).  New York: Peter Lang. 

Kusz, K. (2018). The Next progression: Centering race and ethnicity in skateboarding studies. In K. Butz & C. Peters’ Skateboard Studies (pp. 66-85), Koenig Books: Koln, Germany.  

Kusz, K (2017). Trumpism, Tom Brady, and the reassertion of white supremacy in militarized post-9/11 America.  In M. Butterworth’s (ed.) Sport & Militarism (pp. 229-244). Routledge: New York.

Kusz, K. (2017, October 20). The Road to Charlottesville: The Role of popular culture in priming young white men for the White Right.  The Activist History Review.  (2500 words).
https://activisthistory.com/2017/10/20/the-road-to-charlottesville-the-role-of-popular-culture-in-priming-young-white-men-for-the-white-right/

Kusz, K. (2016, June 23). Trump’s dog whistle: The white, screwed-over sports icon.  The Conversation. (1200 words)
https://theconversation.com/trumps-dog-whistle-the-white-screwed-over-sports-icon-61070

Kusz, K.W. (2015). For the Love of…National Manhood: The Cultural politics of remembering Pat Tillman. In T. Oates & Z. Furness’ Critical Cultural Perspectives on the National Football League. Temple University Press: Philadelphia, PA.