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North American Society for the Sociology of Sport :: Société nord-americaine de sociologie du sport :: La Sociedad Norteamericana para la Sociología del Deporte

Beyond Other Boundaries: Sport within/against/across Borders   **   October 31 - November 3 2007   **   Pittsburgh, PA!

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Posters | Papers | Panels

After choosing the session to which you will be submitting your paper proposal, please go to the Abstract Submission page to submit your abstract. Please do not send your abstract directly to the session organizer.

POSTER SESSIONS

Open Session
Organizer: C Richard King, Washington State University


[Top]

PAPER SESSIONS

Animal Sport Cultures: The Good, the Bad, and the Deadly
Brenda A. Riemer, Eastern Michigan University, briemer[a]emich.edu
There are many types of human-animal interactions, and some of these involve leisure pursuits and sport. Some sports involving animals are seen as positive ways of interacting with the animal (such as competitive dog agility), while others may be associated with harming the animal (such as dog fighting). Papers looking at the socio-cultural aspects of Animal Sport Culture (either general or specific) are welcome.
Beyond Age Boundaries: Sport Across the Border From Youthfulness Into Elderliness
Elizabeth Pike, e.pike[a]chi.ac.uk
In most developed societies, older people constitute an increasing proportion of the demographic. Population statistics from many of these countries indicate that there will be more people aged 65 and over than under 14 within the next decade. While, at first glance, increased longevity would appear to be a positive feature of modernity, evidence suggests that more people experience prejudice and marginalization on the basis of age than any other form of discrimination. A particular feature of this is the assumption that older people are a burden on a society s resources, with negative implications for the economic performance of modern capitalism. Not surprisingly, reaching old age has been compared with crossing the border into a foreign land : an unfamiliar and disorientating place where individuals experience the replacement of the celebrations of their youthfulness with the denigration of their perceived elderliness. The global trend of aging is, therefore, both a success and a challenge, largely determined by the way that societies view their older population. Public health messages, promoted through various national and international policies, suggest that physical activity may be a solution to the problem of becoming elderly. Such campaigns argue that exercise has the potential to challenge both the actual effects, and dominant ideas about, aging. However, activity statistics demonstrate that involvement in exercise in most developed nations decreases with age. The purpose of this session is to present research which explores the experiences of crossing the boundary from youth to old age , and the role that sport and physical activity may play in this process.
Blogs, Wikis, and Podcasts: Using Technology in Teaching the Sociology of Sport
Maura Rosenthal, maura.rosenthal[a]bridgew.edu
Many faculty believe they must be experts in technology to incorporate it into their lessons and assignments. But, this is not the case. In this roundtable, faculty and graduate students will share ways they have incorporated technology into their teaching. The roundtable will include a demonstration of creating a simple podcast.
Boundary Work in Sports Ads
Alan Aycock, aycock[a]uwm.edu
Margaret C. Duncan, mduncan[a]uwm.edu
The promotion of sporting events through advertising provides a rich source of data for cultural analysis, and responds to a wide variety of methodologies. The essential premise of advertising is simple: in 30 seconds, advertisers must capture the attention of the audience with the purpose of altering their everyday practices of consumption. This interplay of discourse and practice both shapes and reflects the capacity of sports enthusiasts to ascribe themselves a community, to recognize (or misrecognize ) themselves as the same sort of people.
Advertising is especially noteworthy for its tendency to draw attention by testing blurring or even refusing the limits of social order. Boundary work is the engine of advertising. For instance, the well-known Swedish Bikini Team ads, along with other beer commercials, invite a viewer to imagine ordinary cultural roles whose sexual attributes are exaggerated, denied, or even reversed, thus rendering the products portrayed more memorable the next time that viewer goes to the mall or store. Similarly, anger, shame, or greed offer emotional boundaries whose transgression can profitably be played upon in humorous ads such as the recent Office Jungle ads, since emotional engagement reinforces and underscores both memory and cognition.
In short, ads are in the phrase made famous by Levi-Strauss, Tambiah, and Douglas symbolically good to think because they have the capacity both to assert and to refuse the cultural boundaries that comprise our everyday routines of discourse/practice, permitting us to understand how boundary work functions in daily life.
Challenging The Gender Binary in Sport
Ann Travers, Simon Fraser University, atravers[a]sfu.ca
The organization of sport in terms of a rigid gender binary is taken for granted in western culture. At the same time, however, the considerable overlap in performance among men and women continues to be relatively invisible. This session will feature pPapers that highlight the problematic nature of organizing sport according to the ideology of the two sex system and papers that identify incidences of resistance or incompatibility with the gender binary.
Coaching Cultures and Discourses
Jim Denison, jim.denison[a]ualberta.ca
Every aspect of the coaching act, from conditioning and athlete development, to performance analysis and theories of training, is somehow influenced by power relations and the social construction of knowledge. However when it comes to educating coaches, concerns over the social nature of coaching are often over looked. This gap in understanding coaching as a human endeavor affords sport sociologists interested in coach education the opportunity to enhance coaches effectiveness by analysing coaching from a sociocultural perspective. Such a concentration, with a specific emphasis on the problematization of coaching knowledges, coaching identities, and coach-athlete relationships is the focus of this session.
College Athletics: Money, Markets, and the Academic Mission
Howard Nixon, hnixon[a]towson.edu
College athletics, especially in the U.S., has increasingly been influenced by the commercialization affecting colleges and universities in general. In fact, athletics may have taken the first step on the commercial path in higher education. The purpose of this session is to examine various ways in which college athletics reflects the imprint of money and the capitalistic marketplace and how this commercial orientation is related to the academic mission of higher education institutions. Papers may concern how institutional priorities, presidential leadership, and academic commitments are affected by "big-time" athletic programs or how the roles of president, athletic director, coach, student-athlete, and/or faculty member are influenced by big-time athletic programs on their campus. Issues of race, ethnicity, gender equity, and athletic elitism also might be considered in this session.
A Contemporary Colloquium
D. Pearson, dpearson[at]uh.edu
The term “colloquial” refers to a familiar and informal conversation (Webster, 1990). More specifically, a colloquium refers to [an] “academic meeting at which specialists deliver addresses on a topic or related topics and then answer questions relating to them” (Webster, 1990, p. 260). This unique session proposal is designed to elicit an academic discussion on a myriad of controversial topical issues in contemporary sport. Procedurally, prior to the NASSS conference the session organizer will propose a list of sport-related topics. Among them will be the following:
Barry Bonds and the Quest to be Numero Uno
“Nappy-headed hoes,” Don Imus, Rutgers Women’s Basketball Team, Advertising, and the NCAA
David Beckham: Coming to America
If Money Equates to Power Than Who’s Running the American Academy?
Post-9/11 Security Issues At Major Sport Venues
Session attendees will be afforded the opportunity to react to and discuss cogent points of view relevant to the topic. To further induce audience participation, topics of discussion may be solicited from the floor. As a result of this unique approach, a healthy exchange of ideas, perspectives, points of view, and documented facts will be articulated during the session. The enthusiasm generated by session attendees may warrant an annual session of this nature.
Corporeality Across Borders
Janelle Joseph, University of Toronto, janelle.joseph[a]utoronto.ca
Transnational studies and sport studies both purport to center 'movement,' yet the body is often elided in discussions of sport in the transnational context. This session addresses the transnationally and corporeally moving body, examining the ways in which culturally constructed movement patterns, physical activities and sports cross borders and are taken up by migrants and locals, in the creation of fluid transnational spaces.
Cross-Cultural Perspectives on Women Athletes' Gender Identity Formation
Ken Muir, muirkb[a]appstate.edu
This panel will focus on the social forces that are present in gender identity formation for women athletes. A cross-cultural perspective includes, for example, the organizer's work in women rugby players gender identity formation in the countries of the United States, New Zealand, and Australia.
Dis/Identifications with Normative Bodies
Heather Sykes, hsykes[at]oise.utoronto.ca
What might the term 'dis/identification' mean for critical studies of the body, movement culture and sport? How has disidentification been understood by different scholars dealing with racialization, sex/gender, subjectivity, politics and performance? Jose Munoz describes dis/identification as a survival process deployed by queers of color, not to identify with or reject mainstream culture, but to transform mainstream culture for queer subversive purposes. What work has been, or is being, done in sport studies (very broadly defined) that engages with related notions of identity, identification and disidentification? Is this a term, a concept, or even a politics that might bring together critical work in different anti-oppressive areas of cultural, sport and body studies? It is hoped that this eclectic session might generate an interesting conversation across a range of different approaches including critical disability studies, postcolonial, psychoanalytic, queer, feminist theories.
The Dramatization/Fictionalization of Sport
Marie Hardin, Penn State University, mch208[a]psu.edu
Erin Whiteside, Penn State University, eew10[a]psu.edu
Interactive technologies and an increasing number of niched media outlets have intensified focus on fan-centered sports experiences and on the dramatization of sports through reality-style television and pseudo-events. This session seeks to explore the existence, effects and theoretical implications of these mediated experiences and their potential to reinforce or challenge power dynamics in the sports/media complex. Papers appropriate for this session may address topics such as gaming, fantasy leagues, dramatic elements of sports coverage or the construction of pseudo-events and sports narratives. All methodological approaches welcome; papers may focus on producers, content or audiences.
Embodiment of the Borderland
Jodi Cohen, jhcohen[a]bridgew.edu
Tamar Semerjian, tamar_semerjian[a]hotmail.com
In the embodiment of the borderland multiple identities may be characterized as those claimed by self and/or assigned by others. Insectionality and/or multiplicity of identities characterized by race, gender, sex, sexuality, disability, etc. frame interactions within the context of physical activity and sport. This session is looking for papers that explore what it means to traverse the borders of these multiple identities.
Embodying the Sociology of Sport and Physical Activity
Robert Pitter, robert.pitter[a]acadiau.ca
In The Body and Social Theory, Chris Shilling argues that to fully appreciate the social importance of the body, sociology needs to broaden its disciplinary boundaries and take seriously the "material, biological and physical dimensions of the body." But how does one engage in or promote a fully embodied sociology of sport, physical activity, and physical culture that meets this sort of challenge? Papers submitted to this session should discuss research, theories, methods, and/or practices that address this question or promote this perspective. Examples of topics or issues that papers in this session might discuss are (1) transcending the body's absent presence in sport and physical activity research, (2) understanding the body as a multidimensional medium for the constitution of society through sport or physical activity studies, (3) theorizing the body as a location for the effects of society (e.g. by showing how people s physical dispositions and capacity for action are influenced by sport and physical activity), and (4) displacing sociology of sport with sociology of the body, physical activity, and/or physical culture in Kinesiology curricula.
Extreme Sports in Global and Local Contexts
Holly Thorpe, hthorpe[a]waikato.ac.nz
Kyle Kusz, kkusz[a]mail.uri.edu
In the 1990s American corporations brought together a number of formerly marginalized youth-dominated activities, such as skateboarding, BMX riding, and BASE-jumping, under the umbrella of a new category: extreme sports. Predominantly, these extreme sporting activities were practiced in Westernized countries by more economically privileged participants of white European heritage with a few exceptions (e.g., Brazil, Japan). Over the past decade extreme sports have experienced such growth in a number of less-Westernized countries (e.g., China, South Africa) by participants whose heritage does not hark back to European roots that it might even be argued that globalization (or perhaps Americanization) can now be considered a major force in the development of extreme sports culture(s).
In recent years the development and popularity of extreme sports in North America has gained considerable scholarly attention, yet less is known about these sports outside of the North American context. In particular, as extreme sports spread to new nations across the globe, we wonder about such things as: How are these activities are being taken up by individuals in new local contexts? What meanings are being articulated with these activities in their sporting and mass media? What sorts of cultural politics and relations of power organize issues of access to the activities? How do gender, class, ethnicity, race, age, and perhaps other social forces influence participation patterns in these extreme sports? How do fears and fascinations with globalization and/or Americanization influence how these extreme sport cultures are being constituted across the globe? These questions are not meant to be exhaustive of the topics that could be addressed in this session. Instead, this session aims to further explore the global and local processes occurring within the extreme sports culture, industry and media. We welcome both theoretical and empirical papers that examine any aspect of extreme sports within a global, national (including the US) or local context(s).
Fighting For Legitimacy: Emergent Issues in the Critical/Contextual Investigation of Combat Sport
Matthew A. Masucci, mmasucci[a]kin.sjsu.edu
As evidenced by multi-million dollar live-gates, bursting Pay-Per-View buy rates and unprecedented mainstream media attention-including a featured cover story in the May 28. 2007 issue of Sports Illustrated-mixed martial arts (MMA) is moving from the margins to the mainstream of popular sporting culture. However, considering the spectacular growth in the popularity of MMA (and the Ultimate Fighting Championship in particular) there have been comparatively few nuanced academic treatments of this once-marginalized sporting practice. Therefore, this session seeks to explore the complicated landscape of combat sports paying particular attention to the discourses of commodification, production, consumption, and contestation that seek to negotiate the tenuous legitimacy of these often masculinist sporting practices. Moreover, we invite contributions that explore a range of issues related to combat sports in general or any of the individual forms of sport that fall under the umbrella of combat sport including but not limited to; boxing, mixed martial arts, and wrestling. In particular, we are interested in papers that explore the following themes: the utilization of media, especially television and the internet, to effectively mainstream MMA; the implications of the growth in popularity of MMA on the traditional combat sports of wrestling, boxing, and the martial arts; implications of combat sport on both fan and participant identity formation for both men and women; the implicit or explicit linkages between the rise in popularity of combat sport and the escalation of a more militarized civil society; and the reclamation of masculine sporting spaces in the wake of the (perceived) erosion of sporting opportunities due to, among other things, Title IX legislation.
Food Cultures in Sport
Michael Atkinson, M.F.Atkinson[a]lboro.ac.uk
This session is broadly concerned with the cultural and subcultural ideologies of eating, diet and nutrition in sport. Papers are invited, from any theoretical or interdisciplinary perspective, which empirically analyse and critique the myriad ways food environments crystallise in sport and leisure cultures. Case studies of the corporate branding of sport by food companies, fasting and weight management among athletes, or the role of sports supplements and health products in athletics are especially welcomed.
Foucault and Transgressive Bodies
Pirkko Markula, pirkko.markula[a]ualberta.ca
Through several Foucauldian readings, sport studies scholars have demonstrated how sport and exercise act as spaces for the techniques of domination and control. For example, we have discussed how physical activity intersects with the apparatus of governmentality through its link to bio-politics of disease control or we have analyzed how sport disciplines its participants into docile bodies. While it has been extremely poignant to demonstrate how the technologies of power determine the conduct of individuals through physical activity, in this session I invite papers that draw from Foucault s later work on the technologies of the self: how individuals begin to understand themselves as subjects within power relations. These might include, but are not limited to, papers that examine how the physically active body can create ethical practices that transgress the discursive foundation of health, sport or exercise.
Fragmented Canadian Sporting Idenities
Michelle Helstein, helsmt[a]uleth.ca
The production and consumption of Canadian sporting identities both reproduces unified notions of Canadian identity while simultaneously embodying fragmented/hybrid identity positions that necessarily complicate any holistic form of national sporting culture. This disruption illustrates that popular sporting culture in Canada is not an end point, but rather an ongoing site for the production, circulation, and negotiation of popular logics of citizenship and identity. Following the conference theme, papers in this session will explore fragmentation and hybrity, highlighting the kinds of distinctions, markings, passages, and barriers created and challenged in/around/through the intersections of race, class, gender, sexuality, and ability, etc., in the context of Canadian sporting identities.
Gender and Sport
Jodi Cohen, jhcohen[a]bridgew.edu
Meghan Murphy, megmurphy421[a]yahoo.com
This session seeks papers that discuss gender and/or sex as a contested border within sport. Considering the historical and current contexts of women s participation in sport, we are looking for papers that discuss ideas and issues within participation, limits and restrictions, or newer definitions of how gender can/should be approached.
Green Sports
Michael Atkinson, M.F.Atkinson[a]lboro.ac.uk
This session invites papers which examine emerging green and environmental sports cultures, and/or burgeoning green ideologies in mainstream sport. The session will focus on the role of green ethics in local and global sports figurations, the pursuit of sustainable sport, the environmental footprint made by sport, and the contemporary rise of interconnected mind-body-environment sport and leisure cultures like yoga, le Parkour, and tai chi.
Intercollegiate Athletics and the American University: The Commodification and Colonizing of Athletic Bodies
Billy Hawkins, bhawk[a]uga.edu
Generating revenue has overshadowed the need to manage cost for many athletic programs striving to get a piece of the pie or a portion of the crumbs that is left behind by the professional collegiate programs that are masquerading as amateur athletics. The increased demands to generate revenue ultimately fall on the shoulders of the athletes that are expected to manage identities that often in conflict and are systematically strained due to intense commodification and colonization. This session intends to examine the challenges male and female athletes are facing in the form of role conflict, issues involving racial and athletic identity, and also conflict as it relates to class and gender as a result of the commodification and colonization of their athletic bodies.
Its a New World: New Media and Globalized Sporting Cultures
David J. Leonard, djl[a]wsu.edu
Daily, sports fans throughout the globe visit various sports websites, participate in fantasy sports, celebrate and criticize teams, players, and sporting cultures on blogs, in discussion groups, and listserves, and enjoy immense pleasure in playing sports video games. Stephen McDaniel and Christopher Sullivan argue the importance and popularity of sports websites on the Internet. Websites like soccer.net receives 100,000 hits on an average day, amassing 8,000,000 during peak events. In 1998, David Rowe found that Yahoo UK and Irish Search engines offered 4,271 categories and 14,591 sites devoted to sport. As of 2004, a U.S. Google search landed 165,000,000 sports websites. Likewise, in 2005, when much of the video game industry faced losses in sales, sports games remained strong within the industry, accounting for more than thirty percent of all video games sales. Yet, to date, the literature within sports sociology, amongst commentators and scholars of global sports culture, has remained relatively silent to the cultural, political, sociological, economic, and overall significance of new media within a globalized sports culture. Building on the a discourse, and the scant literature on the theoretical and practical implications of new media culture within a globalized sports world, this panel will take the important step of reflecting on all of the outstanding questions, debates, and developments that have yet to be fully reflected upon by sports scholars. Possible topics include (but are not limited to): sports video games; sporting blogs; the Internet and global sports culture; fantasy sports; Sports discussion groups; ESPN.com and virtual sports media; the intersections of race, nation, sexuality, gender, and class with sports and new media; analysis of the cultural affects of Youtube, Myspace, or google video on sporting cultures; sports talking radio and podcasting/the Internet.
Maintaining Boundaries: The Practice of Racism in Sport
Todd Crosset, tcrosset[a]sportmgt.umass.edu
Theresa Walton, twalton1[a]kent.edu
This session is dedicated to research exploring the practices and structures in and around sport that perpetuate racial inequalities.
Masculinities and Sport
Eric Anderson, EricAndersonD[a]aol.com
This session will examine how sport produces and challenges orthodox notions of masculinity.
Media Border Crossings: Sport Sociologists Engaging in Public Debate
Toni Bruce, tbruce[a]waikato.ac.nz
In this session, I am seeking stories from the field as sport sociologists engage in public debate related to their areas of research. In the context of the 2007 conference theme, I conceptualize these experiences as media border crossings in which sociologists attempt, more or less successfully, to share their academic knowledge in ways that articulate with the general public, through the filtering discourses of the media. Papers that share experiences, theorize the relationship and processes or suggest effective strategies and practices for sport sociologists wishing to communicate beyond the boundaries of academia are welcome.
Mediating Women's Bodies
Nicola Potopsingh, npotopsingh[a]yahoo.com
Papers in this session will analyze media discourse about women in contemporary sport and fitness culture. Submissions which explore how physically active bodies get constructed through intersecting ideologies of gender, race and class are particularly encouraged. Contributors work may focus on broad examinations of this topic or on specific case studies.
Negotiating Race, Class, Gender and Sexuality in Youth Sport
Cheryl Cooky, ccooky[a]fullerton.edu
Following this year's conference theme, this session welcomes papers that examine the "ways in which sport makes possible the creation, crossing, contestation, and complication of social boundaries" within in youth sport contexts. Papers should critically engage and explore the dynamics, tensions and constructions of race, class, gender and seuxuality in children's play culture or in organized youth sport. These engagements and explorations can be either theoretical or empirical; and can be analyzed from the level of structure, culture, social interaction or any combination of the three.
Perspectives in Teaching the Sociology of Sport
Wib Leonard, wleonard[a]ilstu.edu
Consistent with the theme of this year's conference, I welcome papers focusing on diverse perspectives--theoretical, methodological, and substantive--in teaching the sociology of sport.
Physical Practices in Indigenous Communities
Audrey Giles, agiles[a]uottawa.ca
Physical practices in Indigenous communities challenge/transgress many borders, boundaries, and binaries: legitimate/illegitimate sport, Indigenous/non-Indigenous, on-reserve/off-reserve, north/south, etc. Situated within the overall conference theme, contributors to this session will examine physical practices (e.g., sport, physical activity, recreation) within/against/across these borders and, in particular, the ways in which these activities prompt critical thought about the creation, crossing, contestation, and complication of social, cultural, and political boundaries.
Qualitative Methods and Sport
Leslie Cove, leslie.cove[a]gmail.com
This session invites papers that reflect on the use of qualitative methods in studying sport. Potential papers could address experiences, innovations and/or challenges in data collection, analysis or writing when studying sport topics.
Queering Sport: Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Heterosexual Queer Resistance
Ann Travers, Simon Fraser University, atravers[a]sfu.ca
Mainstream sport in North America normalizes a homophobic gender binary that privileges a masculine gender order. Instances of resistance to this gender binary and the homophobia that accompanies it provide valuable insights into the ways in which sport can be queered - away from the two sex system and away from heteronormativity. Papers relating to transgender and transsexual athletes, lesbian and gay sporting activities and organizations and instances of heterosexual queer rebellion will be featured in this session.
Race and Sex Segregation in Sport
Ann Travers, Simon Fraser University, atravers[a]sfu.ca
Robert Pitter, Acadia University, robert.pitter[a]acadiau.ca
Formal racial segregation in mainstream sports is now "history" but racism continues to to inform participation, management, media and spectatorship. Sex segregation in sport is considered by most people to be based on firm biological differences between the sexes. The ideologies of racism and sexism, while having different geneologies, share a tradition of knowledge production about embodied difference. Papers that address the ways in which assumptions about biological difference are played out in sport with regard to race and gender will be included in this session.
Racial/Ethnic Identity and Representation in Sport
Nicole Willms, willms[a]usc.edu
Successful athletes often find themselves competing not only for themselves, but as representatives of larger groups or ideas. For athletes of color in particular, there are often pressures to represent a racial/ethnic group, and many times these athletes bring a sense of pride to those who identify with or belong to a larger racial/ethnic community. Demands and expectations may emerge from sources that are both inside and outside of the athlete s symbolic community. This session will address issues of collective racial/ethnic identity and representation in sport, including the creation, meanings, and consequences of these representations.
Round Holes in Square Pegs: Promoting Inclusivity in Sport
Eli A. Wolff, e.wolff[a]neu.edu
Eric Anderson, E.Anderson[a]bath.ac.uk
This session will present research examining the intersection of difference and normalcy in sport while exploring the challenges and opportunities in promoting inclusivity in sport. Papers will explore the boundaries of acceptance, respect, dignity and opportunity for various people in sport.
The Social Construction of Fat: The War Against Obesity
Margaret Carlisle Duncan, mduncan[a]uwm.edu
References to the "obesity epidemic" have become so commonplace in popular media discourse and biomedical discourse as to be entirely unremarkable. Papers for this session should address some aspect of how fat (or its converse, slenderness) is socially constructed in contemporary Western societies and how physical activity is invoked as the "solution" to this complex issue.
Sociological Perspectives on Sports Films
Fred Mason, fmason[a]unb.ca
Every year at NASSS there are a handful of papers on sports films, but it s been a while since papers on sports films were brought together. Given the recent scholarship on various forms of sports films (articles and edited collections) and the consistently high number of films put out each year, a session devoted to sports films seems warranted. Papers may address, from different sociological or cultural studies perspectives, a variety of topics or questions, including: What are the social implications of/in sports films? In what ways are major issues of social concern, such as class, gender, race, ethnicity and sexuality, being (re)envisioned in sports films? Are there internal contradictions on such issues, or contradictory approaches to different issues? Are films that seem to offer critiques of the world of sport effective, or do they replicate positions of dominance? What are the connections between sports films and sports-related literature or television fictions? Are sports films produced outside the Hollywood industry different, and if so, how? These questions should be seen as indicative, not prescriptive, for the topics that could be considered. Papers may focus on readings of individual films, analysis of a small set of films somehow related to each other, or a more macro-level analysis of sports films in general.
Sociological Theory & Sport Sociology
Earl Smith, smithea[a]wfu.edu
Sociological Theory & Sport Sociology is a panel of research scholars doing empirical work at the intersection of social and behavioral theory and the sociology of sport. Presenters will address, critique, re-state, and/or advance knowledge in the area of social theory applied to sport. Several theories currently being used (critical, cultural, post-modern) and newly developing theories will be presented. The session is exploratory and time for audience response will be a major feature of the panel.
Sociology of Sport and Social Psychology of Sport: A Professional Relationship That Never Was But Still Might Be
Merrill J. Melnick, mmelnick[a]brockport.edu
In their seminal article "Toward a Sociology of Sport," published in the the Journal of Health, Physical Education and Recreation (May l965), Gerald S. Kenyon and John W. Loy observed that the social psychology of sport has much in common with its sociology, and so they argued that the content and method of the former should be included within the latter. Unfortunately, the study of individuals in social and cultural settings associated with sport has failed to receive much attention from sport sociologists over the past four decades. This session attempts to underscore once again the important relationship that both subdisciplines share, as well as provide a platform for the presentation of psychosociologically-informed inquires currently being conducted by sport sociologists on a variety of topics including self-concept, coach-athlete dyad, leadership, motivation, group dynamics, and social facilitation.
Sport and Citizenship
Jennifer Hardes, hardes.1[a]osu.edu
In line with this year s NASSS conference theme of Beyond Other Boundaries: Sport within/against/across Borders , the session of Sport and Citizenship will explore the ability of sport to act as a socio-cultural tool in the cultivation of citizenship, both within national borders and an international framework. The significant contribution sport can have in cultivating citizenship will be discussed within this session, highlighting some of the current issues sport faces within particular social borders and the ability of sport to aid in surmounting them. This session will appeal to papers which focus on both individual, cultural case studies of sport at the local and national level, and also to papers addressing some of the wider, global issues which are topical to sociological debate. The session will captivate those interested in sport and social issues such as education, Green Sport and the environment, health, the Olympic Games, comparative cultural studies and furthermore those who are interested in discussing and contributing to the field in terms of a wider, more holistic view of sport, peace and social hope.
Sport and Community Dis/Identifications
Christine Dallaire, cdallair[a]uottawa.ca
The purpose of this session is to explore how sport, games and/or sporting festivals contribute to the reproduction and reinvention of cultural communities whether at a local, regional, national or global level.
Sport and Human Rights: In Theory & Practice
Eli A. Wolff, e.wolff[a]neu.edu
This session will focus on sport and human rights, examining current issues and trends in theory and practice. Research presented will focus on three areas: (1) understanding how human rights may be promoted through sport; (2) exploring human rights violations in sport; and (3) identifying strategies for teaching about sport and human rights in the classroom.
Sports and Identity in Colonial and Post-Colonial Context
Paul Silverstein, silversp[a]reed.edu
Tamir Sorek, tsorek[a]ufl.edu
Sports has played diverse roles in various colonial contexts, from serving as a major tool of the colonizer s civilizing mission and the co-optation of indigenous elites, to being a symbolic and institutional platform for anti-colonial struggles. Furthermore, these roles have significant implications for political mobilization through sports along racial, ethnic, and national lines in contemporary post-colonial and semi-colonial contexts. The session will juxtapose and compare sociological, anthropological, and socio-historical studies which analyze these themes and include clear theoretical insights. We welcome as well abstracts which focus on the intersection of these themes with related topics, such as: the construction of modernity, religion and secularism, gender and sexuality, and class boundaries.
Sport and Music: Exploring the Intersections of Movement and Message
Emmett G. Price, e.price[a]neu.edu
Eli A. Wolff, e.wolff[a]neu.edu
This session will explore the relationship and intersection between music & sport in society. Studies will be presented examining the connections between athletes & sport culture (including fans), musicians & music culture (including fans) and most importantly, young people & youth culture around the country and throughout the world. This session will present research addressing how and why music & sport are utilized and interconnected in society.
Sports and National Borderlands: Inside and Beyond
Janet Harris, jcharris[a]mail.sdsu.edu
The focus is sports in national borderlands areas and ways in which sports are shaped by, and contribute to the shaping of, international, national, local, and ethnic/racial relations and identities, and intersections among these. Includes metaphoric "borderlands" among groups with particular local, racial, and ethnic relations/identities within a particular nation-state. Also includes ways in which broader globalization phenomena influence, and are influenced by, sports and international, national, local, and ethnic/racial relations and identities.
Sport and National Identities
Alan Bairner, A.E.S.Bairner[a]lboro.ac.uk
This session is concerned with the role of sport in the construction and reproduction of national identities. Although the relationship between sport, nationalism and nationalism identity has increasingly attracted the interest of scholars, the scope for further, more detailed and theoretically informed, analysis in this area remains considerable. Themes that may be particularly worthy of discussion include the concept of national sports, the relationship between sport and place, and the social significance of sport in countries where national identity is subject to cultural and political contestation. Each of these themes can contribute in turn to a more general understanding of the intricate intersections of social, cultural and constitutional boundaries in relation to the idea of the nation.
Sport and Sexualities
Eric Anderson, EricAndersonD[a]aol.com
This session will examine the intersection of sport and sexualities.
Sport, Citizenship, and Civil Society
Jeffrey Montez de Oca, montezde[a]sbcglobal.net
Sport and citizenship are deeply intertwined and yet are rarely theorized as such. Beginning in the 19th century, social reformers situated sport within a discourse of health in order to bring resources to and raise the quality of life in poor communities what T.T. Marshall later called social citizenship. States themselves often invest in the health and welfare of their citizenry through the development of municipal parks, recreation, and exercise facilities. Schools and other social institutions often use sports to encourage externally managed behavior or good citizenship in young people. Title IX opens access to civil society for women and girls where sport is seen as a valued social resource. From Brazil to Zanzibar, resistant groups have used fútbol as a way to participate in civil society and challenge political regimes. In the United States, Mexican immigrants often carve out a space in civil society through the creation of hometown associations organized around sport participation and consumption. People acting in civil society often invoke the relationship between sport and citizenship, and yet the complexity of that relationship is rarely explored. This panel will explicitly look at the relationship between sport, citizenship, and civil society. Papers that deal with this topic on either theoretical or empirical grounds are invited. Participants may want to explore this theme through historical, ethnographic, or other methods.
Sport and Critical Theory
Bill Morgan, Ohio State University, morgan.523[a]osu.edu
The aim of this session is to bring to bear the insights of critical theory, broadly conceived, on modern sport. The full range of crtical theoretical perspectives are welcome. Particular emphasis will be placed on papers that critically examine public discourse about sport, and explore what that discourse says about us as social actors.
Sport, Speed and Politics: Engaging Virilio's Dromological Thought
Sean Smith, sean.smith[a]rogers.com
Paul Virilio is considered by many to be at the forefront of contemporary critical thought concerning the question of speed and technology in society. Despite the central relationship that both elements have with sporting and other physical cultures particularly those associated with achievement sport Virilio's 'dromological' thought has found limited reception in the community of critical sport scholarship. This conference session seeks to discover the myriad potential intersections between sport and Virilio's thinking on speed and politics. Topics for consideration may include, but are by no means limited to: speed/movement/circulation in physical culture; sport and urban studies; Virilian concepts such as the 'vision machine', the 'logistics of perception' and the 'aesthetics of disappearance'; or the relationship of Virilio's work to that of Foucault, Baudrillard, Deleuze, Haraway, and others.
Sport Sociology and Sport Management: Connections and Disconnections
Adam Love, alove1[a]utk.edu
It may be possible to conceptualize the academic disciplines of sport sociology and sport management as fields with oppositional purposes and goals. In such a view, one might imagine sport management as being focused on such interests as managing, marketing, and organizing sports and sporting organizations more efficiently, and sport sociology as being focused on developing a critical awareness of social justice issues in sport as well as making sports more democratic and accessible. In reality, however, there appears to be connections between the disciplines in many areas, perhaps the most obvious of which is that academics in both fields are interested in sport as a central subject. In sport management, many textbooks, such as Contemporary Sport Management edited by Parks, Quarterman, and Thibault, have chapters specifically dedicated to sociological aspects of sport. In sport sociology, meanwhile, debates have taken place about the appropriate relationship between theory and practice. Specifically, scholars such as Yiannakis (1992) have called for efforts to make sport sociology more relevant to practitioners in sport. Because sport management is a field that largely trains individuals wishing to become practitioners in sport, considering appropriate connections and disconnections between the disciplines of sport sociology and sport management may be an important way of shedding light on such debates about theory and practice.
Sporting Spaces: Bounding and (Re)Producing Social Relations
Michael Friedman, ftbleacher[a]aol.com
Space both structures and is structured by social relations (Lefebvre, 1991) across the many dimensions of identity, including (but not limited to) class, gender, race, sexuality, ability and age. These social relations are produced, reproduced and/or challenged within sporting spaces, as they are designed, created, constructed, used and understood over time. As such, issues of inclusion and exclusion from sporting spaces can have significant implications within people s various social, cultural, economic and political relationships. This session welcomes a wide range of papers addressing the multitude of relationships between sport, space, and identity.
Sport in the Steel City
Amy S. Hribar, University of Minnesota, amsbar2002[at]hotmail.com
Pittsburgh, ranked as one of the most liveable cities in the US and dubbed the City of Champions,Title Town, and The Cradle of Quarterbacks, is located in southwestern Pennsylvania and has a rich history of sports culture. Papers in this session might address, but are not limited to: politics of the Oakmont Country Club (site of the 2007 US Open); the inability of the NBA to attract a market in the city; implications of the NFL's Rooney Rule; the politics around the building of Heinz Field and PNC Park; the politics of player-owners in the NHL (e.g.: Mario Lemieux).
Sporting Texts and Contexts
Mary G. McDonald, mcdonamg[a]muohio.edu
Sporting Texts and Contexts builds upon cultural studies perspectives to conceive of sport celebrities, sporting incidents and famous events in sport as texts saturated with significance whose social and cultural meanings are influenced by numerous competing contexts. Papers that explore these complex articulations of texts and contexts as well as intersectionality (eg. linkages of race, class, gender, sexuality) within commodity culture are especially welcome.
Straddling the Divide(s): Elite Culture and the Sporting Popular
Jennifer Sterling, University of Maryland, Sterlingjfer[a]yahoo.com
In reference to the conference s crossing borders theme, its proximity to the Warhol Museum, and Warhol s and pop art s penchant for intermingling art and popular culture this session invites papers that address the articulation of the sporting popular with so-called elite cultural practices. Critical studies fields such as visual culture and cultural studies have increasingly crossed disciplinary, cultural, and public boundaries or divides, engaging popular discourse such as sport as part of a cultural turn away from their respective parent disciplines of art history and literature in an effort to better understand and affect change in contemporary society. Likewise, and inversely, sport sociology, or physical cultural studies practitioners, have begun to adopt literary and artistic, or performative, content, methods, and theories to address the complex interplay of contemporary physical culture and society. These multi-directional processes have manifested in numerous ways including inter- or anti-disciplinary empirical, theoretical, methodological, pedagogical, writing, and public-ation choices, approaches, and practices. Papers that address the relationships, intersections, and articulations between high and popular (sporting) discourse and their implications are welcome as are those that speak to the potentialities of combining standards of research and writing from traditional elite and newly emergent popular disciplines.
Transcending Linguistic & Cultural Frontiers: Beyond James' Notions of Slavery
Jane Stangl, jstangl[a]email.smith.edu
This session seeks to attract papers that re-constitute or re-read sporting bodies as bodies at work, or laboring bodies. Key to this session are papers that offer comparative analyses that reflect on socially and historically situated practices. Examples may broadly include, but are not limited to: the increase in Spanish language and/or cultural practices in North American sporting activiites; the place/space of transgendered and transsexual athletes; the hierarchy of labor conditions in sport, with particular emphasis on underlings, etc.. More specifically, the session seeks examples of resistance, where oppressive conditions are overcome by the ingenuity of the occupants to carve out their own space/place of comfort in order to maintain their identity or socio-cultural allegiances.
Transgressive Personal Stories as Acts of Resistance
Bob Rinehart, rerine[a]wsu.edu
In the tradition of symbolic interactionists, this session attempts to address acts that expose the border, the liminal, by drawing personal attention to it, by examining the unexamined spaces. Personal, liberatory, and evocative"stories" are encouraged--with the caveat that they attempt to find ways back into public meaning-making. This session may explore such questions as How do we draw upon personal meaning-making to create acts of resistance within sports, sport studies, or other ritualistic endeavors? How might personal stories themselves become acts of resistance to a stultifying sameness of discourse? In sport studies, how might the personal become the public through transgressive, exploratory, and creative processes? What limitations does the transgressive have in exposing the liminal spaces that expose deliberate acts of meaning-making in sport?
What Is My Identity? Teaching Across Subdiscipline Areas
Brenda A. Riemer, briemer[a]emich.edu
Many individuals who teach sport sociology also teach courses such as sport management, sport psychology, sport history (and others). How do we reconcile who we are, and how does this affect our teaching? For example, can a person who teaches sport sociology and sport management affect change in how these future sport managers treat athletes and view sport? And what does this say about the future of sport sociology if we are considered the "new" generalists of our departments?
Writing the Moving Body
Jim Denison, jim.denison[a]ualberta.ca
Sport sociologists have increasingly turned to new ways of writing such as autoethnography to express the unseen and unsaid aspects of movement. This session aims to provide scholars interested in the body s lived experiences the opportunity to problematise various aspects of the material body as it is experienced in contemporary culture. Papers will be expected to experiment with form, content, and style in order to uncover the political, pedagogical, and theoretical relevance of the moving body. This includes asking, How can writing about the moving body in evocative ways transform the way we think about identity and our movement movement practices?
Open Paper Session
If your paper doesn't seem to fit in any of the above sessions, submit your abstract to this session.
Organizer: C Richard King, Washington State University


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PANEL SESSIONS

Reform Movements in College Sport
Michael Malec, malec[a]bc.edu
This Panel will examine contemporary reform movements in college sport in the United States. The efforts of such as those of "The Drake Group" and the "Coalition on Intercollegiate Athletics", among others, will be reviewed. Prospects for real reform in the near future will be future will be critiqued.
Resisting Monopoly Publishers: Open Access Publications as A Subversive Strategy
Jay Coakley, jcoakley[a]uccs.edu
Kevin Young, kyoung[a]ucalgary.ca
This panel discussion describes the global open access movement that librarians initiated to resist monopoly publishers who have set unreasonably high prices for journals and other research publications. Panelists will discuss the pros and cons of open access publishing, the tools that authors can use to retain rights to their published work, and the ways that students and scholars in developing regions of the world are being marginalized in the process of creating and distributing knowledge. The goal of the session is twofold: (1) to show that future growth in the sociology of sport depends on making knowledge in the field more accessible to those concerned with issues related to sports in society, and (2) to initiate social action that will help scholars in the field regain control of the products of their academic labor.


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