NASSS 2018 Conference - Vancouver

Outside of cities, sport often looks differently. Without the critical mass of bodies and available resources, play is not always categorized by the same factions according to age, gender, level of competition, etc.; infrastructure is not always built, and; outcomes are not always understood in terms of physical literacy and/or athlete development. This interdisciplinary session will explore the processes and products of sport, recreation, and leisure in rural communities. In particular, both scholars and local practitioners are invited to discuss the way that contextual factors constitutive of rural communities (e.g., distance, populations, economies, social norms, etc.) shape both the social processes and outcomes of sport and recreation within these communities. In doing so, we invite critical reflection on the factors (e.g., historical events, contemporary policy, changing economies, etc.) shaping rural life, as well as the role of sport as an expression of agency, resistance, and community development.

The purpose of this session is to explore the various socio-cultural and economic aspects of youth sport involvement for participants and their parents.  A system of specialization now exists in many youth sports where an over emphasis on competition and sport skill specialization exists at a young age.  Parents often pay thousands of dollars to enroll their child in club sport teams in the hopes of receiving advanced sport skill instruction for their son or daughter with the hopes of eventually receiving an athletic scholarship to attend college.   Sport agents, college recruiters, and youth sport coaches comprise a growing enterprise at different competitive levels that link into a larger multi-million dollar sport tourism industry where youth sport teams travel to other cities to participate in tournaments   The youth sport phenomenon in the United States has grown to the point that millions of young boys and girls participate at the recreational and club sport levels.  Gaining a better understanding of the nature and scope of the youth sport phenomenon from socio-cultural and economic perspectives is the primary goal of this session.

As his numerous former students-turned NASSS members will attest, Dr. Stephen Mosher has long used music to teach undergraduates how history, culture, and politics inform sport and popular culture. At the 1992 NASSS conference Mosher debuted a visual and aural commentary, Bread and Circuses in America, that intermixed Nike commercials and ESPN Sportscenter coverage with powerful songs like The Beatles’ “Instant Karma,” to implicate sport as a complicit force in the revolt and reaction to the 1992 LA uprisings. Mosher hoped the video would compel audiences to confront the ways in which state violence against black bodies and white refusals of this reality are a recurring feature of American social/sporting life. In this present moment of burgeoning progressive movements and Trumpian white backlash, Dr. Mosher will re-screen Bread and Circuses in America and use it to initiate a conversation amongst panelists and attendees about the social continuities and differences between 1993 and today.

This session will examine the experiential realities of student-athletes in intercollegiate athletics.

Globalization and use of music in sport events–large and small– was largely brought about by the use of vuvuzela in 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa. The purpose of this session is to understand extent to which fans and non-fans use music in sporting events to support their teams or to showcase their communities and nations.  Scholars have researched and noted diversity in fans’ celebration of their sport teams.  Surijlal and Mafini (2011) indicate differing ways fans in western and non-western countries celebrate sport, as for example the use trumpeting of vuvuzela in South Africa for purposes of celebration in soccer matches. Indigenous communities have their way of song and dance before, during, and after sporting events. The session will conclude with implication for music and sport in light of increasing globalization of sport and fans’ trekking across the globe to support their teams.

This Open Session will explore the concept of settler colonialism, history, and sport in society.

Jazz expresses different emotions, and jazz musicians over the years have let their music tell stories of oppression, freedom, and every emotion possible.  Jazz brought in the rhythms of Africa, long before racial integration in the United States.  Similar to the many forms of jazz, individuals who identify as transgender do not fit one definition, which makes it difficult to create inclusive policies within sport and recreation.  The purpose of this session is to highlight current work that focuses on transgender policy in sport and recreation; and how transgender athletes are the leading advocates for the policy change.

Sport-health ideologies advance sport participation as a great alternative to traditional exercise in enhancing social, emotional, mental and physical health and well-being. Mentions of sport, however, are largely missing in many countries’ public health agendas. Michelle Obama’s Let’s Move obesity initiative worked with many sport organizations to help kids learn sports and highlight sports’ role in improving health outcomes. Although the Let’s Move campaign is now defunct, conversations about the role of sport in promoting health should not diminish. This session keep the conversation moving by highlighting theoretical and empirical research that critically exams sport-health ideologies, the inclusiveness of sport in public health agendas, organizational or governmental sport-health promotion policies and programs, health and wellness outcomes of competitive and recreational athletes, ways in which sport influences public health perceptions, and research that explores the intersection of sport, music and health.

Much of the research on race and ethnicity within the sports studies field has been fixated on the black and white racial binary.  In this session, partially entitled ¿Y Nosotros Que? (What about us?), the spotlight is shifted to draw attention to the experiences, challenges and issues of the Latinx diaspora represented in both American and International sporting cultures.  Music and Sport are but two cultural phenomenons within Latin American culture which historically have been used to challenge the political, economic, and social landscapes facing Latinx communities.

This Open Session explores the experiences of girls and women in sport and society.

Recently, sport scholars have begun to use what they know about sport, health, and the body to understand the practices and performances of musicians (Carey & Ventresca, 2015; Caudwell, 2010; Ternes & Hindin, 2015; Ventresca & Carey, 2016). Not unlike athletes, dancers, or gym-goers, musicians also discipline and train their bodies, participate in competitions, experience illness & injuries, ingest drugs, and face social and political obstacles. At the same time, becoming a musician involves a much different set of embodied rituals, rules, practices, pleasures, pains, and politics than what an athlete, dancer, or gym-goer experiences in their respective contexts. In this session, we invite papers that attempt to think through the bodies of musicians and the physical cultures to which they belong. Submissions can be empirical, experiential, and/or theoretical in nature, and presenters are welcomed to perform their research, experience, and/or theory using musical and artistic modes of expression.