As of this forthcoming semester, we will be holding a sport and leisure history seminar in the Ecclesiastical History Room of the Institute of Historical Research in London, at 17:15 on Mondays fortnightly. The purpose of this seminar group is to provide a forum for the presentation and discussion of leading edge research in the history of sport and leisure and its relationship with wider cultural, social and political issues, covering a vast selection of nations and periods, from antiquity to the present.

The autumn programme for the seminar group is as follows:

6 Oct: Martin Polley (Southampton): ‘In Pietri’s Footsteps: Reconstructing the 1908 Olympic Marathon Route’

20 Oct: Michael Heller (QMUL): ‘Sport, Clerical Workers and British Bureaucracies, 1880-1939’

3 Nov: Martin Atherton (Central Lancashire): ‘Choosing to be Deaf: Leisure, Sport and Identity in the British Deaf Community’

17 Nov: Garry Whannel (Bedfordshire): ‘Journalism and the Olympic Games’ [TBC]

1 Dec: Alan Sked (LSE): ‘The British Press and the Problem of Smoking, 1945-75’

15 Dec: Julie Anderson (Manchester): ‘Masculine Identity, Sport and St Dunstan’s’

We are now looking for speakers for the spring and summer semesters, so if you are conducting relevant research that you would like to present at our seminar, please send an abstract of your work (approx. 100 words) and a short biography to us at sportshistory@hotmail.co.uk. If you would be interested in attending our seminar and would like to be added to our mailing list, please get in touch with us at the same address.