Sports and Soccer in Mediterranean Literatures, Arts, and Cultures
Sports and Soccer in Mediterranean Literatures, Arts, and Cultures
NEMLA Conference, Baltimore (MD), 10-13 March 2022
Francesco Brenna, Towson University (fbrenna@towson.edu)
Erin Twohig, Georgetown University (ekt12@georgetown.edu)
This panel examines the presence of soccer/football in Mediterranean cultures—from literature and visual arts, to cinema and history, to music and philosophy. We welcome papers on soccer in cultural production from any part of the Mediterranean world, including comparative approaches, as well as papers on literary and artistic aspects of the sport in journalism and media.
Examples of topics include (but are not limited to):
- Soccer in poetry;
- Soccer in visual arts;
- Soccer in songs;
- Soccer in prison camps during World War II;
- Women’s soccer;
- Fascism and soccer;
- Soccer and (post)colonialism;
- Soccer and issues of nationality.
This panel seeks to explore the gaze that humanistic inquiry provides on soccer. What can the humanities tell us about soccer that social sciences, business, or sport studies cannot? The panel will contribute to defining how the humanities study a multifaceted and multicultural phenomenon such as soccer, which is deeply connected to several pressing contemporary matters—such as migration, national identities, and gender equality. By doing so, it will also reveal the pedagogical potential of using soccer to deal with these topics in academia, given the passion of millions of people for this sport in many cultures.
Given the multilingual scope of the panel, we ask for abstracts and papers in English.
Please submit an abstract through the NEMLA website by September 30, 2021: