Tag: historiography

A sport club is not only a sporting institution. It is a dense accumulation of founding myths, statues, museums, official histories, hall-of-fame portraits, anniversaries and commemorative rituals through which a collectivity tells itself who it is. In Pierre Nora’s terms, the club operates as a lieux de mémoire: a site where a chosen past is consecrated, made visible and put to work in the present. This special issue takes that proposition seriously and asks a single guiding question across different national settings: how does a club’s manufactured heritage actively shape its present.

What is the point of sport studies? Does sport matter? And how and why do sport scholars teach in these ‘revolting times’? The world is more connected than ever before in its history. Our cultural, economic, political, ecological, and social experiences, in a variety of domains, are intertwined more than ever. Shifts, both positive, negative, and unqualifiable are reverberating widely, making the local global and the global local. This is a call to reflect upon why sport matters amid local, regional, and global movements, crises, and developments.

This special issue belongs to the section "Historiography", and papers for the issue can address any aspect of the writing and researching of sports history. If you think you have something novel to present and are interested in submitting a paper please contact Dr Dave Day, the editor for this special issue, at djday75@gmail.com to discuss your proposal. Agreed papers would be expected to be submitted for the first round of reviews by the end of December 2024.

What is the sport scholar’s role today? Overall, we believe it is necessary to reflect on how scholars of sport and adjacent fields tell what Fields calls “‘good stories’” to the public. We open this workshop to individuals who have gone beyond academic journals to critically examine recreation, sport, and/or leisure through teaching, museums, public policy, activism, new media (podcasts, social media, documentary), or any number of alternatives. Overall, the idea is to reflect, share, and write about their responsibility to the public and their efforts to provide “good stories.”