This conference is part of a broader collaboration between different South African and Swiss institutions, namely the District Six Museum (Cape Town), the University of the Western Cape, the Basler Afrika Bibliographien, the University of Basel, the Sportmuseum Schweiz, and the International Centre for Sport Studies.
The conference aims at exploring different visual dimensions of the game in and beyond the football arena. The overarching topic of visuality is conceived in a broad sense. First, “visualising the game” means to make African football and African football players more “visible” in academic research and consideration. Second, the topic of visuality may serve as a lens to gain a deeper understanding of the social, cultural, political and economical embeddedness of football in different historical contexts, as well as on a local, national or global level.
Football, in many ways, is a visual endeavour. From the visual experience within the stadium itself to world-wide media representations, from advertisements to football art and artefacts: football is much about seeing and being seen, about watching, making visual and being visualised, about representing and being represented. The upcoming FIFA World Cup 2010 in South Africa has already turned into a perfect example of some of the visual dimensions of football. Stadiums are built and marketed as tourist attractions, video clips and internet platforms are advertising South African cities and venues, logos and emblems are displayed and celebrated, exhibitions are planned and prepared in museums world-wide.
The conference welcomes contributions on different periods and geographical regions as well as from different disciplinary backgrounds. Contributions may consider pictures and images of football and football players, as well as their social and cultural role in colonial or postcolonial contexts, they may consider the activity and social contexts of seeing, watching and being seen in and beyond the football arena, or may question how football is made visible (or what remains “invisible” and hidden), how it is perceived (or unperceived), how images of football players, games and stadiums are produced and spread through photographs, posters, films, videos, art or artefacts, and how these images generate stereotypes or memories or may have been also utilised for political purposes.
We welcome paper proposals on different periods and geographic areas in or related to Africa as well as from different academic perspectives.
Please submit a 250 word abstract along with a short CV to all three conference organisers by 10 June 2009. Applicants will be notified via e-mail around 10 July 2009.
The conference will take place at the Basler Afrika Bibliographien, Klosterberg 21-23, CH-4001 Basel, Switzerland, 28 - 30 January 2010. Selected conference papers are expected to be published in an edited collection.