‘Power Games’: Sports and Diplomacy in Global Contexts

Student Life Building (SLB) – Rooms 301 and 304

Liverpool John Moores University

5 May 2023

If you would like to attend this year’s conference, please register your place here: #IHD23

09:00 – 09:30             Registration (breakfast, coffee/tea)

09:30 – 10:15

Keynote Address:

Verity Postlethwaite (Loughborough University)

A Critical Reflection on the Opportunities and Challenges of Operationalising Sport in/for Diplomatic Goals

10:15 – 11:45             Panel One

 Sport and Diplomacy in a Historical Context

Chair: André Keil (Liverpool John Moores University)

Souvik Naha (University of Glasgow)

Cricket diplomacy and the postcolonial British world, 1940s-50s

Dan Feather (Liverpool John Moores University)

‘Bridge building or ‘carrot and stick’: British government policy towards sporting contact with South Africa, 1960 to 1994

Angela Lewis (Xi’an Jiaotong Liverpool University)

Heritage diplomacy: Hangzou 2022 Asian Games

11:45 – 12:00             Break

12:00 – 13:30             Panel Two

 Sport, Diplomacy and ‘Sportswashing’: Current Issues

 Chair: TBC

Steven Daniels (Edge Hill University)

The Dual Role of Professional Wrestling in both Sports Diplomacy and Sportswashing

Leon Davis (Teesside University) and Dan Plumley (Sheffield Hallam University)

Overt ‘sportswashing’? LIV Golf and Saudi Arabia’s direct push for legitimacy in elite sport

J Simon Rofe (University of Leeds) and Nicola McCullough

Talking sport diplomacy: Changing minds?’ An oral history approach to understanding FIFA Men’s World Cup 2022 Qatar 

13:30 – 14:30       Lunch (provided)

14:30 – 15:30 Panel Three

Who Owns The Game? Sport Governance and Transformation

Chair: Luba Zatsepina (Liverpool John Moores University)

David M. Webber (Southampton Solent University)

‘Rentier capitalism’, ‘sportswashing’ and the political economy of English football 

Jack Sugden (Liverpool John Moores University)

Assessing governance without government: A proposal for the United Nations Council of Sport Governance 

15:30 – 16:00             Plenary

Jan André Lee Ludvigsen (Liverpool John Moores University)

Looking back, looking forward: sport and politics in an ever-changing world

16:00 – 18:00      Post conference social

18:00 – onwards    Conference dinner (details TBC)