CFP: Sport during the Cold War

Moderator's note:  Although this CFP may draw interest primarily from other
areas, they are interested in how these issues play out in film and media
as well, and proposals from our area of study would be welcomed. --k


From: Edelman, Robert <[email protected]>

Announcement of New Research Project

THE GLOBAL HISTORY OF SPORT IN THE COLD WAR

In association with the Cold War International History Project at the
Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington DC, a new collaborative project has
been launched on the cultural, social and political significance of sport
between the end of World War II and the fall of Communism. Via a series of
workshops and meetings, which will run between 2014 and 2016, the project
aims to produce an edited volume, a series of journal special issues, a
special edition of the Cold War International History Project Bulletin
featuring  primary documents in English translation, and a Critical Oral
History Conference on the 1980 and 1984 Olympics. Prospective hosts
include:  the Jordan Center for Advanced Russian Studies, New York
University, the German Historical Institute in Moscow, the Centre for
Contemporary Historical Research (Zentrum für Zeithistorische Forschung) in
Potsdam, and the University of Cambridge.

Sport during the Cold War was uniquely positioned between high politics,
diplomacy and popular culture. It offers an ideal prism onto issues of hard
and soft power and the ways in which body culture and the media interacted
at times of ideological tension. It was also a truly global phenomenon,
bringing Africa, Asia, and Latin America onto the same stage as the
superpowers and their European surrogates. This project seeks to illuminate
all realms and aspects of sport in the Cold War, from its beginning up to
1991 and including its long aftermath.  We are particularly interested in
hearing from colleagues, young and old, who are working with new primary
sources.

If you would like to present a workshop paper or be otherwise considered
for inclusion in the project, please contact Christopher Young, by 1
December, at: [email protected], sending: (1) 200-300 words outlining your
area of interest; (2) a separate brief description of the sources you are
using; (3) a CV.


PROJECT DIRECTORS
Robert Edelman (University of California, San Diego); Christian Ostermann
(Woodrow Wilson Centre, Washington); Christopher Young (University of
Cambridge, UK).

STEERING COMMITTEE
Jutta Braun (Zentrum deutsche Sportgeschichte / Zentrum für Zeithistorische
Forschung, Potsdam); James Hershberg (George Washington University); Vince
Hunt (Smooth Operations Radio); Yanni Kotsonis (New York University);
Nikolaus Katzer (German Historical Institute, Moscow); James Person
(Woodrow Wilson Centre, Washington), Sergey Radchenko (University of
Nottingham, Ningbo campus) and Mikhail Prozumenshikov (Russian State
Archive of Contemporary History).