
Conference Information
Ceci est un thème de conférence
(This is a conference theme)
(This is a play off The Treachery of Images)
For over 40 years, NASSS has held an annual conference, and except for the very first conference in 1980, it has had a conference theme. It’s not in the bylaws or constitution that NASSS must have a conference theme, but it does appear in the curated, helpful, and unofficial policies and procedures manual. Over those 40+ years, the President-Elect worked with the conference planning committee to determine the conference theme. As we’ve come to expect, in proper sociological representational fashion, for 40+ years NASSS has been engaging in a lot of parentheses, forward slashes, and colons: (Re)producing / (re)making: And (re)envisioning. Playing the serious business of language games, the NASSS conference can be viewed as a site for heterotopias bursting with neologisms. Varying paradigms, theoretical frameworks, methodological designs and tools, the NASSS conference is open for sociological business. Oops, a neoliberal idiom. It’s okay to have a little chuckle--comfort for the sociology of sport soul engaged in critical work.
Taking stock, has NASSS lived up to its purpose? We quote at length:
Constitution of the North American Society for the Sociology of Sport
ARTICLE II. PURPOSE
Section 1:
The North American Society for the Sociology of Sport is organized exclusively for educational purposes to promote, stimulate, and encourage the sociological study of play, games, and sport, to support and cooperate with local, national and international organizations having the same purposes, and to organize and arrange meetings and issue publications concerning the purpose of the Society.
Section 2:
The Society shall recognize and represent all sociological paradigms for the study of play, games, and sport and will promote scholarly activity and exchange among these alternatives paradigms and perspectives.
What does it take to stretch and strive for this mission: to create the roux that serves up a conference climate where all members and would-be members feel included, and truly feel empowered to transform their selves, sessions, the sociology of sport, and ambitiously, society?
A radically open conference theme, swinging to the tune of scholarship, service, and structure.
● Scholarship--broadly but clearly centered on the sociology of play, games, and sport, including the body and physical cultural studies, inclusive of all paradigms and perspectives. Limited guardrails on the path to curiosity and creation.
● Service--to NASSS, each other, and community; service to our collective mission and its flourishment; service to our committees, members, and operations (e.g., this conference, SSJ, take a student to lunch, +1 initiative); and service to address the needs of others and the needs of NASSS.
● Structure--our recent critical turn throughout the sociology of sport often results in breaking down existing structures, without a complementary restructuring to scaffold our revisioning. Can your sessions, your involvement in NASSS, modify or re(envision) new structures that foster our mission and the sociology of sport? Such is one impetus for a radically open conference theme, along with a new session option.
Here’s the assignment. It’s time to look inward at NASSS, our scholarship, service, and structure, while simultaneously doing public sociology of sport. These subthemes and the local connection to New Orleans will be integrated throughout the conference and planning for NASSS as a whole. For now, go for it! Create the session you would like to see. Present or perform like you want. Lean into improvisation like the great African American jazz birthed from the unique culture of New Orleans. Submit that idea that’s been simmering throughout you like some good ol’ N’awlins gumbo and know that we are all there to serve one another.
“Laissez les bons temps!” encouraged the conference planning committee.
“Oui, cher,” they replied, understanding the assignment.
The Call for Abstracts will be posted soon.
- Submit session proposals by Friday, May 5, 2023.
- Session organizers will be notified about their proposed session no later than Friday, May 19, 2023.
- The call for abstracts will be released approximately two weeks after this closing date.
- Deadline for submission of abstracts is Friday, July 28, 2023.
- Session organizers will notify abstract submitters (authors) of abstract decision (acceptance/decline) no later than Friday, August 11, 2023.
- Final completed session submissions are due Friday, August 18, 2023.
- A preliminary program will be released in September, 2023.
- All presenters must be a member of NASSS as of Friday October 27, 2023.
- Conference registration information, pricing, and hotel information is forthcoming on the NASSS website.
- ***Closing time for all dates is 11:59pm Pacific Time.***
The NASSS Executive Board, with the leadership of Ajhanai Keaton, Jorge Moraga, Judy Liao, Jeffrey Montez de Oca, Katherine Jamieson, and Billy Hawkins, is sponsoring the third pre-conference S.E.E.D.S Program for graduate students and junior faculty of color at the New Orleans meeting in November 2023. We see this as an attempt to create a healing, supportive space for emergent scholars of color within NASSS to facilitate their ability to thrive within NASSS and academia at large while also fostering future generations of critical, engaged scholars of color.
Check out the information about our pre-conference programming, including how to apply.
Conference Site
The 2023 annual conference for the North American Society for the Sociology of Sport will be held in New Orleans, LA, USA, November 1-4, Doubletree by Hilton, New Orleans.
We recognize that the state of Louisiana recently passed legislation targeting members of the LGBTQ+ community generally, and transgender people in particular (see Senate Bill 44). Because conference sites are chosen years in advance, NASSS cannot move to a different location for the 2023 conference. However, we will work with local organizations and support networks to support groups targeted by this legislation as needed. If you have concerns about your safety and/or well-being, please contact the conference planning committee.
In order to grow our community, sense of belonging, and additional financial support for NASSS, under the leadership of President Richardson, we have created a NASSS store on Bonfire.
We have tested the quality of the product and logistics and are pleased with the results. You can see the store here: NASSS Bonfire Store
If you have any questions about the conference PROGRAM (scheduling of events, abstracts and session), please contact President-Elect and conference chair, Brian Gearity
If you have any questions about the conference logistics (hotel, registration, etc), please contact the Chair of the Conference Steering committee, Charles Crowley
If you have any questions about conference registration (need a receipt, question on how to fill out registration), please contact the membership coordinator William Bridel.
If you have any questions about the website (session/abstract submission forms, questions about information on the web), please contact the Web Administrator, Jen McGovern