Call for papers: Sport in penal and internment camps

he Nordic Sport Science Forum has called for abstracts for the conference on Violence, discipline and leisure: Sport in penal and internment camps. Deadline for submissions: 31 July 2014.

The conference will be held from 23-25 September 2014 in Cologne, Germany. It will address sport as both a tool of repression and strategy of survival in a broad and comparative historical perspective.

With our conference we approach the historic reality of sport in camps beyond alienation and metaphors. We will thus scrutinise sport as both a tool of repression and strategy of survival in a broad and comparative perspective. In order to tackle the dynamic of sport in penal and internement camps we will take into account different camp systems, periods of time and geographical regions.

Prospective contributions may address, but are not limited to, one of the following questions:

• How did sport occur in penal and internment camps? What was the reason of introducing sport in camps and who contributed to this development?
• What was the role of sport in the camps’ everyday life?
• Who was taking exercise and participated in sport (prisoners, guards, or camp superiors)?
• Which role did sport play in the system of repression?
• Which role did sport play for the camp inmates themselves?
• Which identities were constructed with the help of sport and how did sport serve as a matter of self-expression?
• Which concepts of body and gender were expressed by sport in camps?
• Which kind of sports was exercised in the camps and why were especially these sports popular?
• What can be said about the performative aspects of sport in camps? Who attended sport events and watched others in their action? Was there any media coverage of such events and what was its function within the camp?
• Did sport establish a zone of contacts between the different levels of hierarchy within a camp? Did sport connect the camp with the outer world?
• How does memory of camp life effect the way we think about sport in camps today? How do these interpretations influence scholarly research on the topic?

We invite proposals for 25-minute papers. Please include into your proposal the paper title, short bio and a brief abstract of no more than 300 words. Please, send your proposal or any queries to a.hilbrenner@uni-bonn.de by 31 July 2014. The conference language is English.