This conference aims to provide a challenge to explore various possible interpretations of this theme, and to provide potential for wide-ranging discussions linking concepts cultural and practical related to play in all its aspects. It is hoped to attract proposals from a wide range of scholars, including those with backgrounds in cultural studies, history of art and the visual arts, literary studies, anthropology and sociology. The conference will take place at Leicester University, and sponsored in particular by the Marc Fitch Historical Institute. Proposals are thus invited debating aspects of definitions, issues of links between different concepts, and interpretations ranging across societies, cultures, geographical locations and periods. Themes might include, but are not limited to:

• Play – game-playing and role-playing;
• Sport – fair and foul play
• Play as drama – theatre, performance and display
• Child’s Play
• Deep Play – gambling and the rules of play
• Cultures of Playing – Play and its purposes
• Gender and playfulness
• Play and its regulation and management
• Play and the rule-makers
• Play – place and locations
• Play and censorship – including the role of the law
• Play accessories – Play and technology
• The Economics of Play, Plays and Playing
• Play and Players – from actors to children
• Play - Media and Publicity
• Play and Time, including seasonality

Proposals are invited for papers in any historical context, period or culture, consisting of title and abstract (around 350 words and no more than a side of A4). Proposals from postgraduate students are particularly welcomed. Submission of sessions or panels of three related papers (plus chair, if liked) are encouraged, and especially those for panels which would signal engagement between historians working on discrete historical periods, or for panels exploring links between history and other disciplines.