2017 Conference Information

November 1-4, 2017 in Windsor, Ontario

Sport Matters: Physics, Politics, Performances, Pedagogies

While exigencies and politics may have changed, in the 37 years that the members of the North American Society for the Sociology of Sport (NASSS) have convened their annual meetings, two things have remained constant: sport is both matter and sport matters. In this year’s meeting, we invite participants to explore the double meaning of “matter(s)” in the context of contemporary sport and physical culture. That is, we invite scholars to explore how physical and material bodies in/of motion (and at play) both constitute, and are constituted by, broader political, economic, and cultural arrangements. At an historical moment defined in North America (and beyond) by growing degrees of xenophobia, ethnic nationalism, global neoliberalism, heteronormative patriarchy, ableist doxa, environmental collapse, and anti-science politics, we believe that bodies performing therein serve as critical ‘matters of concern’ for understanding our present condition.

In keeping with the conference theme, sessions may highlight various ways in which scholars are exploring the double meaning of sport-related matter (as both consequential and substantial) and the alliterative intersections that make it so (e.g. politics-physics, politics-performances, politics-pedagogies, physics-performances, physics-pedagogies, performances-pedagogies). For this year’s event, we encourage scholars doing theoretical, empirical, and interventionist work on sporting and physically active bodies and body cultures to bring together scholarship and activism that seeks to make sense of and provide resistance to the uneven politics working against bodies in motion and at play. The conference will feature presentations from a wide variety of approaches, including but not limited to: activism, sport for peace and development, social work, critical coaching, critical pedagogy, policy and governance, engagement with the media, self-authored media (e.g. blogging, podcasts), and others. The full range of theoretical and methodological will also be represented, including: poststructuralism, postmodernism, new materialism, participatory action research, ethnography, discourse analysis, post-positivism, critical management studies, media studies, and of course sociological theory and methods.

Session organizers are welcome to engage the theme in creative, challenging, and innovative ways. This call will generate session topics for conference participants to choose from during the Call for Abstracts in April. Session organizers for included sessions are responsible for accepting or declining participants to their sessions.

 

Conference Schedule

You can download the full schedule here:
NASSS Program 2017 (Final Edition)

Attendees can also access the Sched Conference App  Link:  https://northamericansocietyforthes2017.sched.com
There you will find all the sessions and conference activities. You can plan which sessions you want to attend, and you can also sort by presenter. You should use this in lieu of a formal index in looking for specific presenters (including yourself). You can also either create or edit profiles to maximize networking opportunities and to let other attendees know more about yourself and your research.

Conference Overview

Wednesday, November 1
8:00pm Welcome Reception

Thursday, November 2
8:00am Concurrent Sessions 1
9:30am Alan Ingham Memorial Lecture: Dr. Pirkko Markula
11:00am Concurrent Sessions 2
1:15pm Concurrent Sessions 3
2:45pm Concurrent Sessions 4
4:00pm Keynote Lecture: Jesse Wente

Friday, November 3
8:00am Concurrent Sessions 5
9:30am Presidential Address: Dr. Theresa Walton-Fisette
11:00am Concurrent Sessions 6
1:30pm Concurrent Sessions 7
3:00pm Concurrent Sessions 8
4:15pm Plenary Dialogue: Sport Institutions and Social Justice/ Jessica Luther & Jules Boycoff
5:45pm Business Meeting / Awards Presentation
7:00pm Presidential Reception

Saturday, November 4
8:00am Concurrent Sessions 9
9:30am Plenary Dialogue: Sport Media and/as Public Sociology / Kate Fagan & Kevin Blackistone
11:00am Concurrent Sessions 10
1:30pm Concurrent Sessions 11
3:00pm Concurrent Sessions 12

 

Abstracts

Download the
NASSS 2017 Book of Abstracts (Updated October 16)

Technology: All session rooms are equipped with a projector and screen. Presenters will need to supply their own laptop or connect with other presenters in the session to use theirs. Mac users: please bring an adapter to connect to the projector. All session rooms also have wifi, as does the main meeting area.

 

Registration

November 1-4, 2017, Windsor, Ontario

Registration is now closed.

Looking for your receipt?

  1. Go the registration link:  https://www.regonline.com/builder/site/Default.aspx?EventID=1980171
  2. Click on “Register Now” (Yes, click on this even if you are not planning to register again)
  3. Scroll down to the bottom of the screen.
  4. Enter and Verify your email address.
  5. Click on “View or Change Your Existing Registration”.   It is right below “Verify Email Address”.
  6. Enter your password.
  7. When you get to the next screen, click on the link for “View, Print, or Email Registration" which is right under your name.

 

 

Hotel and Travel

The 2017 Conference will take place in Windsor, Ontario, Canada. It is directly across river and accessible from Detroit, Michigan, USA.

Hotel Information

Conference Hotel: Caesars Windsor
Address: 377 Riverside Drive, Windsor, Ontario, Canada
Hotel Website: https://www.caesars.com/caesars-windsor/hotel
NASSS Group Rate Site: https://www.totalrewards.com/hotel-reservations/main/?propCode=WCL&groupCode=ANA1030

Rates for the NASSS conference hotel room block are as follows:

Room TypeSingle RateDouble RateTriple RateQuad Rate
Deluxe$160.00$160.00$180.00$200

Additional Room Charges and Policies

The room rate quoted are subject to the following additional charges and policies:

  • Rates are subject to all applicable taxes, currently 13% HST
  • Rates are quoted in Canadian funds and are on a per room, per night basis
  • Smoking rooms and accessible rooms are available on request
  • Rates are net non-commissionable

Travel Information
(with thanks to Vicky Paraschak and Tourism Windsor Essex Pelee Island for providing the following information)

The Windsor Airport is approximately a 20-minute taxi ride to our property. Taxis are usually awaiting arrivals and if not, there are taxi phones available. If you are flying into this airport from a US destination, you will require a passport.

The Detroit Metro Airport is approximately 25 minutes away from the Canada/U.S. border by car.

Those flying into Detroit. (From Conference Director William Bridel) A situation has recently arisen in Windsor, namely needed repairs to the ceiling of the tunnel, which requires that the tunnel from Detroit to Windsor be closed fully for 10 days, scheduled to end on October 30th. Following that date, for the next few days the tunnel will be closed overnight (around 8pm to 5am); that said, it will be open Friday and Saturday nights, which is when delegates should aim to go to Detroit if that is part of your plans. Delegates coming into Detroit airport at night on October 31, November 1, or 2 will not be able to take the tunnel to get to Caesars Windsor, as the tunnel will be closed. This is not a big problem as the travel distance in Windsor from the Ambassador Bridge to the tunnel/official hotel is only about 5-minutes by car, but you will want to avoid the tunnel if travelling those nights (so plan to take the bridge instead).

Options to get from Detroit airport to Caesars Windsor: The Robert Q is one option to get from the Detroit airport to Windsor https://reservation.robertq.com/airbus/ but it only goes to a hotel near the Ambassador Bridge, so delegates would have to take a short cab ride after that to Caesars Windsor. A limousine service is available as well, and can be booked at http://metrocars.com/index.html and should also be available on standby; the cost will be roughly $75 US. Taxis may also be available from the Detroit airport to Caesars Windsor but they will charge by the meter (which could cost more or less than using Metro Cars, depending on delays due to road construction or at customs).  There are car rental places near the airport, so that could be an option – rent a car, schedule a time when others can come with you from the airport (sharing the cost), and that gives you the option of having the car while in Windsor. There’s free parking at Caesars Windsor.

 

Dining

There are several restaurants located within the conference hotel.  Click here to see options, hours, and menus. https://www.caesars.com/caesars-windsor/restaurants

Here are some other local restaurants that are near the hotel.

Windsoreats is a great website for exploring possibilities in Windsor and can be found at http://www.windsoreats.com/

Sightseeing

For more information on Windsor, click on http://www.citywindsor.ca/visitors/Pages/Visiting-Windsor.aspx

Events Happening in the Detroit/Windsor Area

  • Detroit Red Wings home game: Tuesday, October 31, 7:30pm against Arizona.
  • Windsor Spitfires (Jr A Hockey): Thursday November 2, 7:05 against Hamilton.
  • Windsor International Film Festival: Monday October 30- Sunday, November 5, www.windsorfilmfestival.com
  • The Colosseum shows (in the Casino): Click Here for Ticket Information
    • Friday, November 3rd, Theresa Caputo (9pm)
    • Saturday November 4th, A Night with Janis Joplin (9pm)

    Thanks to Vicky Paraschak  and the Conference Site Committee.

Grad Students

The NASSS Conference is a great place for grad students to meet each other and to interact with faculty in their field.

As the conference approaches, we will add information for grad students here.

Conference Events for Graduate Students

  • The annual Graduate Student Panel Lunch will take place at Noon on Thursday, November 2nd in Augustus 1.
  • There will be a Grad Student Social Night on Thursday, Nov. 2, starting at 8 p.m. All grad students, and grad students at heart, are encouraged to come to the Foundry Pub, located at 459 Ouellette Ave, in Windsor, Ontario (it is about a 12 minute walk from the conference hotel). This is an informal social, where you can come and go throughout the night as you are available. This pub has a small kitchen, so you can order food but you should not all plan on ordering your dinner at the same time. The back area of the pub has been reserved for us. The Facebook page for the restaurant can be found here.
  • The  annual Take a Student to Lunch event will take place on Friday, November 3, 2017, from 12:00 p.m. - 1:15 p.m. We will be meeting in Augustus 1.  Faculty or students who signed up should have received an email with more information on your lunch pairings. If you cannot access this information, we will have it at the event. If you did not sign up, as either a faculty or student participant, but would still like to participate, please come to Augustus 1 at the beginning of the event and you will be paired up with somebody.

If you need more info about Graduate Students and NASSS, check out our Graduate Student  Pages or contact grad rep Sam Twito (twito@utexas.edu) with any questions.

In recognition of the fact that our 2017 Conference at the Windsor Caesar’s is taking place in the traditional territories/lands of First Nations peoples, a group of NASSS members led by Vicky Paraschak and Dan Henhawk have been hard at work organizing a series of activities which might go some way toward further acknowledging and promoting education around the colonial histories and contemporary politics which foreground our event. Below are a few activities or initiatives that the group has put in place and which all NASSS members are encouraged to engage:

Pre-Conference Reading List

Dan Henhawk has compiled a short list of readings (attached) with which NASSS scholars might consider reading prior to the conference. These books/articles are some of the most widely-cited works in the areas of indigenous and postcolonial studies (and sport studies/sociology) and provide important historical context and political/theoretical praxis from which to (re)think sport, identities, and inequality in the ongoing struggle against colonialism and colonization.

  • Forsyth, J. & Giles, A.R. (Ed.). (2013). Aboriginal peoples and sport in Canada: Historical foundations and contemporary issues. Vancouver: UBC Press.
  • Forsyth, J., & Wamsley, K. B. (2006). “Native to native … we'll recapture our spirits”: The world indigenous nations games and north American indigenous games as cultural resistance. The International Journal of the History of Sport, 23(2), 294–314.
  • Fox, K. M. (2006). Leisure and indigenous peoples. Leisure Studies, 25(4), 403-409.
  • Fox, K. M. (2007). Aboriginal peoples in North American and Euro-north American leisure. Leisure/Loisir, 31(1), 217.
  • Grande, S. (2004). Red pedagogy: Native American social and political thought. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
  • Paraschak, V. (1989). The native sport and recreation program, 1972-1981. Canadian Journal of History of Sport, 26(2), 1-18.
  • Paraschak, V. (1990a). Native sport history. Canadian Journal of History of Sport, 20, 57–68.
  • Paraschak, V. (1990b). Organized sport for native females on the Six Nations Reserve, Ontario from 1968 to 1980. Canadian Journal of History of Sport, 21(2), 70–80.
  • Paraschak, V. (1997). Variations in race relations. Sociology of Sport Journal, 14, 1–21.
  • Paraschak, V. (1998). “Reasonable amusements.” Sport History Review, 29, 121–131.
  • Smith, L. T. (1999). Decolonizing methodologies: Research and indigenous peoples.  New York, NY: Zed Books, Ltd.

The Politics of Openings

The Conference Program Committee has asked Dan Henhawk to provide a presentation on the ‘politics of openings’ at the beginning of our first member-wide session, the Ingham Memorial Address. After seeking advice from stakeholders within various First Nations communities, the committee was advised that a politics of openings address would be more appropriate than a conventional “land acknowledgement”—providing for a more complex and dialogue-building consideration of the role that sport and other physical cultural practices have played in historical and ongoing colonization and social injustice.

Jesse Wente Keynote

This year’s main keynote speaker is Jesse Wente. According to his online bio, Jesse is "well known as a film critic and broadcaster in Toronto and across Canada, and was the first nationally syndicated Indigenous columnist for the CBC. He has also been a regular guest on CBC Newsworld’s News Morning and Weekend Edition, as well as Q. Jesse is Ojibwe, and his family comes from Chicago and the Serpent River First Nation in Ontario. He is an advocate for Aboriginal Arts, most notably on screen. He draws attention to the imagery used by Hollywood in portrayals of indigenous peoples and stresses the need for a culture to have influence on their own depiction. His pieces on The Revenant, Beyonce and sports mascots were among the most shared on CBC.ca.

Thanks here to the University of Windsor for providing the financial support to facilitate Mr. Wente’s talk. The organizing group has contacted the Chiefs from both the Caldwell First Nations and Walpole Island First Nation and invited students and community members from their respective groups to attend Jesse Wente’s talk (or any other part of the NASSS proceedings).

Elite Aboriginal Athletes Editahon (from Vicky Paraschak):

Click here to sign up for the Wikipedia Editathon on Elite Aboriginal Athletes in Canada on Wednesday, November 1st at the University of Windsor, just prior to the start of NASSS.

The event will take place at the University of Windsor HK building, room 248 from 9am-4:30pm. It is co-sponsored by the Department of Kinesiology and Leddy Library. The objective is to enhance existing elite Aboriginal athlete entries, and to add additional entries (especially Tom Longboat Award winners since 1951) so that there are at least 150+ entries listed under three Wikipedia categories by the end of this year:

https://outreachdashboard.wmflabs.org/courses/University_of_Windsor/Editathon_on_Elite_Aboriginal_Athletes_in_Canada?enroll=fejxvytp

First Nations sportspeople (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:First_Nations_sportspeople) – 107 currently

Metis sportspeople (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:M%C3%A9tis_sportspeople) – 23 currently

Canadian Inuit sportspeople (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Canadian_Inuit_sportspeople) – 5 currently

This effort aligns with the Truth and Reconciliation Commission Final Report, call to action #87:

“We call upon all levels of government, in collaboration with Aboriginal peoples, sports halls of fame, and other relevant organizations, to provide public education that tells the national story of Aboriginal athletes in history.” (p. 336)

All are invited to attend and assist us in this process. We would ask that individuals make a minimum commitment of 1 hour, and we’d appreciate those who can stay for half the day, or for the whole day. Librarians will be available for assistance in locating references that can be used to write and substantiate the entries. If individuals wish to assist from afar, we would ask that you identify the athlete(s) that you intend to write about, or send us references about that athlete that can be used by others to script out the Wikipedia entry. Individuals who are familiar with writing Wikipedia entries will be available to provide assistance. There are also modules we will recommend you work through beforehand to familiarize yourself with the Wikipedia method of writing/creating/editing/posting.

1 hour contribution – ensuring existing entries include all awards they have received properly documented, tied to a reference source (e.g., all the indigenous athletes in the Canada Sports Hall of Fame have this fact noted in their entry, including the year of induction )

2-3 hour contribution – watch one of the Chiefs and Champions DVDs we have available (24 minutes) and then tie additional relevant materials into the existing entries, adding in the DVD reference as well.

Athletes: Chief Roger Adolph, Alwyn Morris, Waneek Horn-Miller, Fred Sasakamoose, Tom Longboat, Billy Two Rivers, Angela Chalmers,Richard Peter, Sharon and Shirley Firth, Gino Odjick, Ross Powless, Darren Zack, Arthur Obey, Bev Beaver, Beverly Stranger, Bill Isaacs (taken), Carole Polchies, Charles Smallface, Jason Loutitt, Martha Benjamin (taken), Paul Goulais, Reginald Underwood, Rick Brant (athletics), Heather Kashman (Metis). Other elite Aboriginal athletes in Canada are also suitable for adding to these lists.

Thanks to all who can come and help us on this important task. If you have any questions or prefer to participate off-site, sign up and email Vicky Paraschak (parasch@uwindsor.ca) to sort out the contribution you’d prefer to make.

 

To access, meeting agendas, minutes, and bylaws changes,  click here to visit the NASSS documents page.

To see the 2017 Board reports prepared by the NASSS committees, visit the reports page.

Thanks to Kevin Airgid for the photos of Windsor, Ontario.