Summer 2015 Workshop, organised by the British Society of Sports History’s South of England Sport and Leisure History Network (BSSH South) in association with The University of Portsmouth’s Port Towns and Urban Cultures Group
This workshop seeks to examine the development and expansion of leisure in coastal regions, port towns and cities, and on and alongside waterways. Bodies of water and adjacent land sites have had a diverse historic relationship with recreational practices. Coastal resorts have been at the centre of an expanding and increasingly global tourism industry. Maritime travel has likewise been integral to cultural transmission and hybridisation. And port towns, with their unique economies and geographies, have their own distinct histories of popular pastimes.
We are seeking proposals for papers on a range of different leisure forms (including sport, cinema, popular music, tourism, shopping, etc.) and time periods. Papers with a focus on the South of England are particularly welcome, but we are also happy to consider proposals for papers on leisure and coasts, ports and waterways elsewhere in Britain, in other countries, and indeed, globally.
Potential topics could include, but are not restricted to:
- Seaside resorts and their leisure offerings
- Dissemination of leisure practices and pastimes across rivers, canals, seas and oceans
- Maritime leisure activities
- Port-town and river and canal-side leisure cultures
- Water-based sporting practices
- Representations of waterside and waterborne leisure activities
If you would be interested in giving a paper, please send an abstract (c. 200-300 words) and a brief biography to bsshsouth@gmail.com by Tuesday, 31st March.
This workshop is organised by the British Society of Sports History’s South of England Sport and Leisure History Network (BSSH South), which aims to bring together individuals in Greater London, the South East and the East of England interested in the history of leisure in all of its forms.
It is being co-hosted with the Port Towns and Urban Cultures group at the University of Portsmouth, founded in 2010 to examine the social and cultural impact of life in port towns from the eighteenth century onwards: http://porttowns.port.ac.uk/