Wrestling as Ancient and Contemporary Decentralized Sport History
Saturday June 29th
3 – 4:30pm
Please RSVP on Facebook

This event is part of the Exhibition Wicket Leeks, in the Flux Gallery from June 22nd to July 13th

In 2013, the International Olympic Committee dropped wrestling as a core sport from the 2020 Olympic games. In the wake of this decision, wrestlers and their supporters from all over the world rallied to reinstitute what is commonly referred to as “the world’s oldest sport.”

“As a wrestler and coach for over 20 years, I had an obvious biased perspective on this issue. However, as an academic who values world cultures, I was interested in understanding how and why the Olympics would cancel such an inclusive and diverse sport as wrestling.” – Dr. Joshua D. Phillips

Joshua D. Phillips (PhD, Southern Illinois University) is an assistant teaching professor in the Department of Communication Arts and Sciences at Pennsylvania State University, Brandywine. His main research and teaching focus is rhetoric and intercultural communication where he explores how narratives shape culture.

He is also a local high school wrestling coach and has been involved with the sport for over 20 years. Recently he has taken an interest in how the sport of wrestling has shaped cultures around the world and how it has encouraged positive intercultural relationships between people and countries from diverse backgrounds.