November Sport, Film and National Culture Focus of NUI Galway Webinar

The webinar will mark the launch of landmark new book ‘Sport, Film and National Culture’, edited by NUI Galway academic Dr Seán Crosson

NUI Galway’s Moore Institute will host a webinar on Sport, Film and National Culture on Thursday, 19 November, at 4pm. The event will mark the launch of a major new volume on this theme edited by Dr Seán Crosson from the University’s Huston School of Film and Digital Media and leader of the Sport and Exercise Research Group in the Moore Institute.

This webinar will examine the critical role film has played in affirming the relationship between sport and national cultures internationally.

Sport and film have historically been key components of national cultures and societies. The Irish experience is particularly instructive in this respect, evident in the close and enduring association between Gaelic games and Irish identity, and its popular depiction in cinema. As the centenary of Bloody Sunday approaches, Irish cinema has provided one of the most memorable and unsettling depictions – in Neil Jordan’s Michael Collins (1996) – of the horrific events of that day when British forces fired upon players and supporters at a Gaelic football match.

Covering films of all types, from Hollywood blockbusters to regional documentaries and newsreels, Dr Crosson’s new book Sport, Film and National Culture considers how filmic depictions of sport have configured and informed a wide range of distinctive national cultures, societies and identities. Featuring case studies from eleven national contexts across six continents – including North and South America, Europe, Africa, Asia and Oceania – it reveals the common and contrasting approaches that have emerged within sport cinema in differing national contexts.

Dr Crosson said: “This is the first collection dedicated to examining the intersection of sport, film and national culture. We are delighted to bring together such a distinguished range of speakers to contribute to our launch webinar, including participants from six countries and addressing seven distinct national contexts. While responding to the distinctive features evident in each context considered, these contributors individually and collectively speak to the ongoing significance of the relationship between sport cinema and national culture and identity.”

Director of NUI Galway’s Moore Institute, Professor Daniel Carey, said: “This is a fascinating volume that addresses issues of race, gender, and politics in the filmic representation of sport. Attention to differing national contexts across several continents creates important avenues for understanding the cultural meaning of sporting activity, ranging from football to cricket, boxing, American football and baseball, and beyond.”

The webinar brings together a broad range of contributors to this book, who are leading authorities on sport and film, to explore the intersection of these prominent cultural forces internationally.

Chaired by Dr Crosson, contributors to the webinar will include:

• Dr Michael W. Thomas, Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Ethiopian Screen Worlds, University of London
• Dr Grant Wiedenfeld, Assistant Professor of Media and Culture in the Department of Mass Communication at Sam Houston State University
• Dr Manuel Garin, Senior Lecturer in Film and Media Studies at Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona
• Dr Stephen Glynn, Associate Research Fellow at De Montfort University, Leicester
• Dr Jesse Schlotterbeck, Associate Professor of Cinema at Denison University, Granville, Ohio
• Dr Ellen Wright, Senior Lecturer in Cinema and Television History, De Montfort University, Leicester
• Dr Francesco Buscemi, Lecturer in History of Radio and TV, Catholic University of Milan.
• Pauline Peixoto Iglesias Vargas, PhD candidate in Physical Education, Federal University of Paraná, Brazil.
• Dr Gina Daddario, Lin Rong San Professor of Communication at Shenandoah University in Winchester, Virginia.
• Rebeccah Dawson, Assistant Professor of German Studies, University of Kentucky.

To attend please register at https://bit.ly/3lcYglm.

For more on the Moore Institute’s Sport & Exercise Research Group visit: https://mooreinstitute.ie/research-group/sport-identity-representation/

For further information on the collection, please visit:  https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/e/9780429327018      

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