Schedule

Full Program

Click here for a PDF of the full program: NASSS Montreal Program  {Last Updated April 19}

Click here to look at any updates or changes.
https://nasss.org/conference-scheduling-changes/

Sched App

Once again, we will be using Sched as our app host for this year's conference. You can access the app on your computer or other devices at https://nasssconf2021.sched.com or download the “Sched App” (https://sched.com/sched-app/) to your cell phone or tablet. Once downloaded, open the app and search for our conference: nasssconf2021. You will also see it as an upcoming event. Feel free to browse through the conference sessions, create your own speaker profile, add photographs/images, and upload other information for and about your session as desired. Unfortunately, it was not possible to upload abstracts to the app, but you can see full session info and schedule for all events, colour-coded to match the main pdf version of the program.

Schedule at a Glance

Thanks to our graduate student volunteers, NASSS will be livestreaming certain key events in the program via Facebook live. (Follow this link to join to the group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/2313850515) 
You must be a member of the NASSS Facebook group to view. All livestreaming events are marked with asterisks.***

All times are in Montreal local time (Eastern Standard)

Wednesday, April 20th
Welcome Registration, 7-10pm
Light Refreshments and Cash Bar

Thursday, April 21st
Conference Welcome, 8-830am
Parallel Session 1, 8:30-945am
Student Poster Display, 9:45-10am
Refreshment Break, 10-1030am
Parallel Session 2, 10:30-11:45am
Lunch on Your Own or Graduate Student Luncheon, 11:45-1:15pm
Parallel Session 3, 1:15-2:30pm
Refreshment Break, 2:30-3pm
Parallel Session 4, 3-4:15pm
NASSS Night at the Movies, 4:15-6pm: Film Premiere & Panel: Willie O'Ree*** (Please note: the film will not be streamed; only the Q&A will be streamed)
NASSS Night Out- NHL Hockey, 7pm puck drop

Friday, April 22nd
Presidential Run, 6am
Parallel Session 5- 8-9:15am
Refreshment Break, 10:30-11am
Presidential Address, 11-12:15pm: Algerian Hart, ROI for NASSS: Active Mentorship and Cultivating the Next Generation of Sport Scholars***
Lunch on your Own OR Take a Student to Lunch, 12:15-1:45pm
Parallel Session 7, 1:45-3pm
Refreshment Break, 3-3:30pm
Parallel Session 8, 3:30-4:45pm
Keynote Address, 4:45-6:00pm: Waneek Horn-Miller
NASSS Business Meeting & Awards, 6-7:30pm
President's Reception, 7:30-10pm

Saturday, April 23rd
Parallel Session 9, 8-9:15am
Alan Ingham Memorial Lecture, 9:15-10:30am: Samantha King, Before “Beyond Meat”: Athletic Bodies, Protein Prospecting, and Ecological Crises in Historical Perspective***
Parallel Session 10, 11am-12:15pm
NASSS Members Luncheon, 12:15-1:45pm
Parallel Session 11, 1:45-3pm
Refreshment Break, 3-3:30pm
Parallel Session 12, 3:30-4:45pm
Keynote, 4:45-6pm: Responding to the Challenges of Public Sociology***
Shireen Ahmen -The Diary of a Racialized Woman in Sports Media & Academy: Surviving the Toxicity of the Interwebs
and Johanna Mellis- Title: ‘In the Arena’: Public Scholarship, Risks, and Collective Resistance to Harassment

Inclusivity, Togetherness, Community, and the Sociology of Sport in a Post(?)-Covid World

Our sociological language is peppered with words that highlight differences and express distinctions and distancing between peoples across the world, almost always as exercises of power, for example: stratification, colonization, discrimination, nationalism, and exclusion. Our politics at this time is also one that divides us in increasingly polarizing ways, as the conservative right and liberal left are pulled further apart, be it through the rise of populism, Trump’s presidency (and its legacy) or Brexit. Longstanding disputes over personal rights and freedoms, for example through abortion laws, gun rights, and freedom of speech, have re-entered our socio-political consciousness in recent years in the wake of mass public protests. Processes of globalization and the technologies that have emerged and developed as a biproduct of our march toward ‘progress’ have also pulled us apart in novel ways. Indeed, who would have predicted that cell-phones – oft-heralded as a means of communication to push us closer together – would in time come to isolate us socially from others as they negate the need for face-to-face interactions?

Sport is also an arena that has experienced and witnessed changes in these regards. While spectatorship and ‘fandom’ have remained integral aspects of our cultures and collective identities, and television viewership of sport remains strong and financially lucrative, broad, sweeping statistics suggest that in North America we are actually playing and participating in sport less now than we used to, and considerably less than our parents did. While children are participating in (adult-led) organized sport much more, past the age of 13 years the numbers drop worryingly, especially for girls. Sporting opportunities remain inequitable along lines of social class, gender, race/ethnicity, religion, and (dis)ability among other factors, and also between various cultures within our increasingly diverse societies. Sporting participation has become a clear indication of social privilege more generally, and it seems the promises of previous generations – that sport can unite us – have not led to wholesale changes in ‘who gets to play’, much like the promises of neoliberal leadership within our economic and political institutions has not led to greater income equality and necessarily a healthier, happier society. Moreover, the nature of our participation in sport and physical activity has also changed, as we have moved perceptibly from a focus on the collective to the individual. While gym memberships are on the rise, sports ‘club’ memberships are declining. The former is enjoyed often in a large, shared space but one in which most people would, it appears, prefer to isolate themselves and complete their workouts with headphones in their ears and – a symbol of our times if ever there was one – with cell phones in their hands. The necessity for social distancing brought about through Covid-19 has merely served to exacerbate this phenomenon. Shared sport participation, played/participated at a recreational level, has become increasingly scarce, especially among adults. Subsequently, these spaces have become increasingly valuable and necessary in our society, and probably more so as we move gradually, and full of hope, into a post-Covid world.

Despite these contemporary challenges, there remains a strong belief in the value of ‘community’. The lockdowns, physical isolation and social distancing from workplaces, schools and public spaces brought about by the Covid-19 global pandemic has had the effect of bringing us closer to those within our household but further from those outside of it. It is a reminder of what many of us had previously taken for granted, that is the importance of social connections and the indelible bonds of community. Indeed, it was almost as if we needed to be forced into this behaviour for us to have actually taken note and ‘acted’. Thus, it seems deep down we have retained a belief in community but required some larger force to push us there. The same could be said for efforts toward reconciliation, to heal wounds and historical divides between groups as we embark on decolonial praxis. We ask: now we know the truth of previous atrocities – especially since the recent discovered remains of indigenous children’s bodies at a former residential school site in Kamloops, BC – how can we move forward and begin a new conversation? It is an inveterate belief in the values of equity, inclusion and solidarity that propel us, in the face of threats that seek to divide us, to come together and ensure that our next move toward repairing our broken societies is the right one. Despite substantial evidence to the contrary, we retain a strong belief in the value of sport as a social bond that unites rather than divides communities. What is abundantly clear is that it can do both, and within our present socio-historical context, its value as both a medium for the transmission of ideology and also as a vehicle for social progression (or regression) remains considerable.

For this year’s NASSS conference – as we attempt to come together in-person in the spirit of inclusivity, togetherness and community – we welcome papers on any aspect of sport and physical culture as observed through a sociological lens. We would be particularly interested to receive submissions that explore sport and physical culture related to ideas around community, reconciliation, partnerships, relationships, equity, social inclusion, diversity, participation, and the indelible human spirit.

Get connected to NASSS with Social Media.

Use #NASSS2022 on all social media platforms to be a part of the conversation.  Thanks to your NASSS members and volunteers who maintain these pages.
For more on our social media channels, click here: https://nasss.org/social-media-electronic-communications/

Facebook- Keynotes and main presentations will be streamed via Facebook live, thanks to some of our awesome graduate students.  In order to see the events, you will need to join the NASSS group
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2313850515

Twitter- @NASSSport
https://twitter.com/NASSSport

Instagram - @nasss_sport
https://www.instagram.com/nasss_sport/?hl=en

For information on COVID protocols for  international visitors who are traveling to Canada, please see the following information:

For fully vaccinated travelers:  https://travel.gc.ca/travel-covid/travel-restrictions/covid-vaccinated-travellers-entering-canada

For other travelers: https://travel.gc.ca/travel-covid/travel-restrictions/wizard-start

Information about traveling to Quebec from across Canada : https://www.mtl.org/en/covid-19

Please Note

1.  From April 1, fully vaccinated travelers from abroad (including the US) do not need to complete a pre-entry test before arriving in Canada. However, it is possible that you may be selected for a random test, but if so you will not have to quarantine while you await your result.
2. ALL travelers to Canada will be required to show an ‘ArriveCan receipt’ to the Canada border guards along with their passport. This receipt is derived from the ArriveCan app that is free to download and also mandatory. Please download the app before you travel, and upload relevant documentation to it, such as evidence of your vaccines. You will be able to upload documentation within 72 hours of your flight. More info can be found here: https://www.canada.ca/en/public-health/services/diseases/coronavirus-disease-covid-19/arrivecan.html
3. At this point in time, unvaccinated travelers are not allowed to enter Canada from abroad.
4. Travelers to Quebec may have to take a Covid test before they depart home to the US or another country. Please check your own country’s travel requirements before departing so that you can prepare ahead of time for any Covid testing that might be required while in Montreal. The hotel has recommended a clinic nearby that can provide Covid tests prior to departure (1187 Sainte-Catherine West). There will be a fee for this but, depending on your own institution’s conference travel funding policy, you may be able to claim the cost of it as an eligible travel expense (you should check this ahead of time). Here is their website to book: https://rpdtesting.as.me/sheratonmtl
5.   Currently within Quebec, no vaccine passports are required and capacity limits are lifted, but mask requirements remain in effect in indoor public spaces. They will likely still be in effect by the time of the conference. Masks are not required while eating/drinking/dining, but it is not clear as to whether they are required while speaking/presenting. Please understand that we are required to follow the Quebec provincial mask mandates that are in place at least until the end of April

Montreal +1 Initiative

In partnership with the Diversity and Conference Climate Committee Chair, Marques Dexter, the 2021
Conference Committee is pleased to continue the “+1” initiative. The goal of this initiative is to
expand the audience for the NASSS conference to include those who have never attended the NASSS
conference or who have not attended for some time. NASSS members are encouraged to invite a +1;
this can be a colleague, student, peer, or friend who has never been to NASSS and to invite them to
register and participate in the conference. As you are considering organizing a session and/or
submitting an abstract, we encourage you to bring to your +1 to Montreal!

We especially encourage bringing undergraduate students to get them engaged with NASSS early

Call for Abstracts for Annual Conference

The 2021 Annual Conference for the North American Society for the Sociology of Sport will be held in Montreal, QC Canada. April 20-23 2022, at Le Centre Sheraton Montreal.

The Conference Program Committee would like to invite abstracts for: Inclusivity, Togetherness, Community, and the Sociology of Sport in a Post(?)-Covid World

Submission Process

The call for abstracts is now closed.

This conference will be conducted in-person, and those who are able to attend in-person are encouraged to do so, and to make use of our hotel room block at reduced rates. We will aim to run our keynote talks in a hybrid format, allowing those who cannot attend to tune-in virtually and to ask questions through a moderator in the Q&A. No other talks will be run virtually, and no virtual sessions will be run, with the exception of those organized or presented by graduate students. If they are unable to attend in person, we will allow graduate students only the opportunity to present their work virtually, with the delivery of pre-recorded presentations (max. 10 minutes) that will be uploaded beforehand and available to view during the conference.

Session Type

A list of Sessions can be viewed or downloaded here: Montreal List of Sessions
When submitting an abstract, you will be asked the type of submission it is. Your choices are:

• Thematic – paper session proposed by a NASSS member
• Open – paper session proposed by the Program Committee
• Open panel, roundtable or workshop
• Student posters – presented in-person
• Student open paper – pre-recorded before the conference and uploaded for viewing during the conference

Please choose carefully which session to submit your abstract for. The organizer/convener of that session will be responsible for reviewing your abstract. That person will respond to you directly by December 1, 2021. Due to the high number of abstracts we are expecting for our conference, it is very possible that your paper will not be accepted for the particular session for which you submitted. Please do not take this as a personal rejection! So long as your proposed presentation/paper fits within the scope of our field/conference, your abstract will be reviewed by the Program Committee with a view to finding a suitable session for it.

Timeline

The NASSS website will be open for abstract submissions on October 8, 2021. The deadline for submission of individual abstracts is November 15, 2021. Session organizers will notify authors of abstract acceptance and submit their completed sessions (4-5 papers/presentations) no later than December 1, 2021. Final completed session submission is due December 15, 2021. The tentative (first draft) of the conference program will be released to the NASSS community for checking in February 2022. The conference will be held in Montreal April 20-23

Questions: Please peruse the NASSS website for regularly updated information about the conference, including registration and accommodation information, but direct any further questions to the Conference Program Committee Chair and NASSS President-Elect, Robert J. Lake at [email protected]  

If you have any questions about the conference PROGRAM (scheduling of events, abstracts and session), please contact President-Elect and conference chair, Rob Lake.

If you have any questions about the conference logistics (hotel, registration, etc), please contact the Chair of the Conference Steering committee, Charles Crowley