CFP: NASSS 2009 Conference -- Sport and Bodily Culture in Hard Times

This is the second call for Session Organizers to submit a session to the 2009 NASSS Conference that will be held in Ottawa, CANADA, November 4-7, 2009. The following information appears on the NASSS website and can be accessed by going to: http://www.nasss.org/2009/index.html

The 30th annual conference of the North American Society for the Sociology of Sport (NASSS) will be held November 4-7, 2009 at the Marriott Hotel on Kent Street in Ottawa, CAN. The theme for this year’s conference is “Sport and Bodily Culture in Hard Times.” Those interested in organizing a session should submit a session proposal by June 15th, 2009 to one of the program co-chairs, Geneviève Rail and Nancy Spencer, via the Session Proposal form.

Given the economic downturn and its impact all over the planet, the Program Committee felt that we, as NASSS members, could reflect on the “Hard Times” behind and ahead of us and what they mean for sport and, more broadly, for culture. Hard times impact on the lives of people in so many negative ways. At the same time, they may push us to reinvent ourselves and to rethink the social structures that organize our worlds so that we do not end up in the same catastrophic situation. Since sport is so often appreciated for the values it instills and the leadership it creates, one has to wonder whether drastic changes should occur so that sport could help in developing leaders with different values (e.g., interdependence) who would work to transform our societies and avoid past errors. In a world where increasingly we define ourselves by what we have (e.g., a house, a car, a membership in a club, friends on Facebook, a nice body), should the social dynamics as well as the individual choices that have brought us to Hard Times be renewed? Could we define ourselves and our social worlds differently? How are sport and bodily culture linked to subjectivities and social forces, and how could they be part of an effort to think ourselves/our planet anew? Should we struggle to keep sport and bodily culture just as they are and continue to pursue “business as usual”? What role should we play, as scholars, in asking and answering such questions?

The Program Committee is interested in securing sessions that promote specific or focused content related to the theme (i.e., keep the theme in mind when choosing a session title). However, we also welcome sessions that are not directly related to the conference theme but are consistent in scope. Sessions that enhance interdisciplinary conversations and encourage new ways of thinking about sport and bodily culture are particularly welcome.

For further information, please contact one of the program co-chairs:

Geneviève Rail, Program Co-Chair
Faculty of Health Sciences
University of Ottawa
Email: genrail@uottawa.ca

Nancy Spencer, Program Co-Chair
School of Human Movement, Sport, and Leisure Studies
Bowling Green State University
Email: nspencr@bgnet.bgsu.edu

Call for abstracts: A second call seeking paper and poster abstracts will begin once the list of sessions is complete. The final deadline for submitting paper or poster abstracts will be July 15th, 2009. Look for the “2009 Call for Paper and Poster Abstracts” as well as more details about keynote speakers and conference activities in early August on the NASSS conference website.

Conference Registration: will be available on the conference registration page when the call for papers is issued.