Held on the eve of the FIFA World Cup, this conference will draw together scholars for an interdisciplinary conference to examine this new set of research questions, across history and in the present day.

 

 

 

Questions which might be considered by conference participants include:

 

-        How is sport translated across cultures, and how does this differ today from in the past?

 

-        Do multilingual players/teams compete more successfully away from home than their monolingual counterparts?

 

-        How have sporting ideologies been translated across cultures?

 

-        Does sport transcend translation because of its hybrid nature and its global origins in histories of migration?

 

-        Are some sports untranslatable?

 

-        How do art and visual media translate sport across linguistic boundaries?

 

-        How have radio and television translated sport across nations and around the world?

 

-        How have colonialism and colonial legacies shaped sporting translation?

 

-        Is there a Universal Language of Sport?

 

-        What is the relationship between Twitter, sport and translation?

 

 

 

 

 

Across the Social Sciences, Arts and Humanities, sport has become a considerable object of academic interest in recent years. In June 2014, the FIFA World Cup will be held in Brazil, for the first time since 1950. Two years later the Olympic Games will be held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Much research has been carried out to locate these games within their global social, cultural, political and economic histories, paying particular attention to the role of visual cultures, mega-event organisation, nationalism and even individual sportspeople in shaping the spectacle.

 

Very few studies have paid attention to the role of Translation as an obstacle or opportunity in global sports history, politics or cultural studies. But we believe that translation is an essential process in almost every sporting encounter. On the eve of the FIFA World Cup, this conference will explore the relationship between sport and translation.

 

The conference will bring to a close a year-long programme of events on Sport and Translation at the University of Bristol, including workshops on Sport and Interpreting, and Sports Writing and Translation, as well as work with local Bristol schools and public engagement activities. Sport and Translation was generously supported by a grant from the University Research Strategy Fund. At previous events, speakers have included Andy Brassell, Matt Rendell, Keka Vega, Clare Gardner and Tim Goddard.

 

Conference organising committee: Matthew Brown, Jonah Bury, John Foot, David Goldblatt, Gloria Lanci, Mike O’Mahony, Carol O’Sullivan, David Perkins, Aris Da Silva, Ana Suarez.