On July 8th, 2025, Dr. Brandon Wallace stood before IU’s Bloomington’s High School Journalism Institute class at the Ernie Pyle Hall. He gave a press conference over his presentation, “My Past, Present, and Future”, in which he provided his perspective on the relationship between sports and social justice while elaborating on his upcoming projects.  

Professor Wallace currently serves IU Bloomington as the assistant professor for the Cinema and Media Studies program. He obtained his B.A. at Bradley University with a major in Sociology and Sports Communication and furthered his education at the University of Maryland, receiving his MA and PHD in Physical Cultural Studies. With experience in researching the racial aspects in sports media, Professor Wallace highlighted to the high school journalists how sports mimics occurrences in society and the power substances to improve humanity.  

“Looking at sport, we can understand a lot about how our society functions and will grow,” Professor Wallace said. “And so, I think that’s the power of sport, is that it has all of these different things that almost inherently make the world better.”  

During the conference, Professor Wallace recalls when he first witnessed Colin Kaepernick’s kneel during the national anthem in 2016. Colin Kaepernick is a former quarterback for the San Francisco 49ers. His kneeling was a form of protesting police brutality against African Americans.  

“But it was quite interesting because when Colin Kaepernick started kneeling, I was really against it. I didn’t understand it.” Professor Wallace said.  

Professor Wallace admits to the high school students that sports were his introduction to understanding social movements such as Black Lives Matter. In addition, he mentions the racial stereotypes faced as a young athlete. This ultimately led him to work with Know Your Rights Camp, an organization created by Colin Kaepernick that focuses on informing the public on their Amendment Rights, engaging over 1400 cites in the country.  

The mission of Know Your Rights Camp continued to motivate Professor Wallace to share his knowledge regarding the relation between sports and humanity. He discussed with the potential journalists his forthcoming book, Beyond a Kneel: How Social Movements Harness the Power – and Problems of Sport, covering the arguments in it articles. For instance, he elaborated on political messages delivered through sports and its traits that equip the public for social protest.  

“There’s really interesting studies about how a lot of athletes in their post athletic careers turn to social nets,” said Professor Wallace. “And that kind of channels the qualities that they learned through sport.”  

Throughout the speech, Professor Wallace input humor and used hand gestures to stress his points. Audience members engaged with the professor by asking questions and maintaining eye contact. After the conference, students reflected on how moved they felt in regard to the topics examined in the speech.  

“It was truly interesting,” Nuala Small-Swihart said. “At first, I thought it would be sportier, but the link he pointed out with social justice while explaining his book really caught my attention.”