Call for Papers | Visual Culture and the Global Impact of Sport | Online Conference, December 1, 2023. Call ends September 30, 2023

Conference Organisers

• • • Mike O’Mahony (University of Bristol)
    • Daniel Haxall (Kutztown University of Pennsylvania)
    • Przemyslaw Strozek (Institute of Art Polish Academy of Sciences)

Since the first modern Olympic Games, staged in Athens in 1896, international sporting festivals have provided a focal point for a wide array of interventions into visual and material culture. From painters and sculptors, to poster designers and filmmakers and the producers of material artefacts such as mascots, badges and stamps, sporting festivals bring together international artists and creatives for related programming while inspiring critical reflection on the visual semiotics of athletic competition. Indeed, these events form the visual and material landscape of sport’s development, growth and expansion both globally and in terms of diversity and accessibility. This conference seeks to bring together a wide range of scholars, both early career and more experienced, from a range of disciplines, whose research focuses on the visual and material culture of sport. By aligning research with specific international and global festivals, ranging from Olympic and Paralympic Games and World tournaments, to inter-continental competitions such as Asian and African Games, or events such as the Commonwealth Games, we hope to demonstrate the breadth of cultural practice and the vital role played by artists and creators in shaping the appearance and environment of such events. We encourage an interdisciplinary approach drawing on scholars from fields in art and design history, film history, sport history, social history and any discipline that engages with the visual and material culture of sport. We intend to hold a one-day, online conference on 1 December 2023 and to select papers from those presented at the conference to publish in an academic journal and/or possibly as an edited volume. We also hope to develop this as a wider project going forward with more events, talks, conferences and publications.

Subjects might include, but are no means restricted to:

• • • Exhibitions held in conjunction with major sporting events.
    • Materials created to promote, commemorate, or contest such competitions.
    • Monuments and memorials erected to the athletes, coaches, and sports featured in these contests.
    • The aesthetics of events and games, ranging from specific sports to the visage of athletes and their performance.
    • Projections of regional and national identities through the visual culture of these events.
    • The politics of sport through considerations of their venues, either architectural or geographic, and their visual rhetoric.
    • The impact of art and material culture on conceptions of sport, ranging from its documentation to visualization.
    • Accessibility and inclusion through the formats of, and approaches to, sporting festivals.
    • Sportswear and insignia that envisage community, nation, or social justice.

Please send proposals (max 250 words) to mike.omahony@bristol.ac.uk, Deadline for proposals is 30 September 2023.