The International Journal of Motorcycle Studies (IJMS) is dedicated to the study and discussion of motorcycling culture in all its forms—from the experience of riding and racing to the history of the machine, the riders and design to the images of motorcycling and motorcyclists in film, advertising and literature. We welcome submissions on all areas related to the cultural phenomenon of motorcycling. We invite contributions from all members of the motorcycling community.

The journal is published in the spring and fall.

ISSN 1931-275X

Editorial Board

Ted Bishop rides a Ducati and teaches English at the University of Alberta , Canada. He has published articles on James Joyce and Virginia Woolf, written motorcycling articles for Rider magazine and Cycle Canada. He is the author of Riding with Rilke: Reflections on Motorcycles and Books (Penguin Canada/Norton USA) which Playboy listed as a “Best Book” for 2006. But they didn’t invite him to pose.

Michael J. Chappell is an associate professor in the English Department at Western Connecticut State University. A rider since 1970, he currently pilots a red 1999 BMW R1100S.


Geoff Crowther is Director of the Motorcycle Consumer Research Unit at the University of Huddersfield, UK. He has completed a number of research studies of motorcycling including a study of the changing self-identities of motorcyclists and a project supported by the Motorcycle Industry Association examining motorcycle rider development. He has been an active, enthusiastic motorcyclist for thirty five years and is a regular visitor to the Isle of Man TT races and rides a BMW GS1200.


Timothy Holmes is a lecturer in the School of Journalism , Media and Cultural Studies at Cardiff University , Wales , specializing in the historical and cultural aspects of magazine journalism. He spent 15 years as a journalist and editor on a range of motorcycling titles in the UK , the final one his own publication. He shares a Triumph T140V with his wife and pours cash into a hole called "restoration of a 1960 Trophy 650."

Gary Kieffner is graduate of the Borderlands History Ph.D. Program at the University of Texas at El Paso where he teaches undergraduate U.S. history courses. His fields of study are borderlands, popular culture, and indigenous history. Co-chair of the Motorcycling Culture and Myth strand of conference panels, Kieffner currently rides the world’s first burnt orange Harley-Davidson, a Honda Gold Wing and a Volkswagen-Yamaha trike of his own construction.

 

Randy D. McBee is an associate professor of history at Texas Tech University where he teaches courses in recent U.S. history and U.S. immigration and urban history. He is the author of Dance Hall Days: Intimacy and Leisure Among Working Class Immigrants in the United States (New York University Press, 2000) and is currently writing a history of the motorcyclist/biker since the end of World War II.

Katherine Sutherland is Associate Dean of Arts at the Thompson Rivers University in British Columbia , Canada, where she created a course called “Motorcycles, Speed and Literature.” Her primary areas of research and publication are postcolonial and women's studies, as well as sports culture. She has published scholarly and popular articles on hockey, soccer and motorcycling, in publications such as Cycle Canada and English Studies in Canada.

 

James J. Ward is Professor of History and Director of the Honors Program at Cedar Crest College in Allentown, Pennsylvania.  His degrees are from Middlebury College and New York University.  His enthusiasm for British motorcycles began when he over-wintered in a fraternity house room with a DBD34 Gold Star and became permanent with the subsequent acquisition of a Velocette Thruxton (in the days when British singles were being given away). Both, alas, are long gone, but the affection remains.

Honorary Editorial Advisor

Sputnik, founder of the Texas Motorcycle Rights Association, is chief spokesperson for bikers in Texas politics. He is the Chair of the Mystical Riders M/C and a member of both the National Confederation of Motorcyclists Legislative Task Force and the Central Texas Confederation of Clubs. He contributed a section for college political science textbooks titled "Practicing Politics in Texas " and currently publishes Texas Road Warriors Motorcycle Magazine.

Editor

Suzanne Ferriss is a professor of English at Nova Southeastern University. Her publications include two volumes on the cultural study of fashion, A Handbook of Literary Feminisms, and two edited collections on chick lit and chick flicks. With Steven Alford, she is the author of Motorcycle (Reaktion Books, London, 2008). She currently rides a 2005 Yamaha FZ1.

Associate Editor

Steven Alford completed his graduate work in Comparative Literature at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. He teaches at Nova Southeastern University in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. With Suzanne Ferriss, he is the author of Motorcycle (Reaktion Books, London, 2008). He rides a Honda VTX 1800C and a Triumph Sprint ST.

Reviews Editor

Christian A. Pierce currently lives and works in Atlanta, Georgia where he is employed by Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. The purchase of his first motorcycle coincided with his entrance into graduate school and the two events soon became intertwined. While studying Film and Television at Emory University he began an analysis of biker movies that has continued to this day. His study has dealt with a vast array of subjects/themes from the construction of the “biker” image in the films of the late 1960s to reality television’s current love affair with bike builders. Of late, he has been intrigued by the portrayal of motorcycling as a sport and the infrequent dealings of this subject in film. He rides a 2003 Honda VTR 1000.

 

Graphic Designer

Alice Sexton has worked as a design professional for thirty years and has been ridng motorcycles for over twenty. She has served as National President of the Women's International Motorcyclist Association - USA Division (WIMAUSA). She has been a contributor to Road Racing World magazine and Motorcyclist magazine. Alice commutes to work daily in Los Angeles on a 2000 Suzuki SV650, races a 1987 Cagiva Allazzura with WSMC, and takes her 1978 MotoGuzzi Lemans for tourning and weekend rides.

Web Master

Greg Horne is an information technology executive director at Nova Southeastern University . When not working he loves to wander the planet on his BMW R1200GS.

Web Developer

Tim Fransen is a Digital Design Technician at the University of the Arts London. He runs a motorcycle travel book publishers called Essex-Dakar Books (www.essex-dakar.org) and an interactive timeline charting the history of motorcycle travel literature for the IJMS (check out the Resources page). With Steven Alford and Suzanne Ferriss, he has produced An Anthology Of Early British Motorcycle Travel Literature (Essex-Dakar Books, 2009) and is currently working on another book about one of his motorcycle adventures. He currently rides a1976 Suzuki RV90 Sandbike.

Founding Editor

Wendy Moon is a frequent contributor to Motorcycle Consumer News, the screenwriter for the new She-Devils on Wheels, and an Assistant Lecturer at the University of Southern California and contributed the Harley-Davidson as Icon essay to the forth-coming American Icon series. Wendy lives in the Los Angeles area and rides a '99 Harley-Davidson Sportster 883.