Proposals are sought for a conference on European football and collective memory, which forms part of a research project on “Football Research in an Enlarged Europe: Identity Dynamics, Perception Patterns and Cultural Change in Europe’s most Prominent Form of Popular Culture”, led by Professor Wolfram Pyta (Chair of Modern History, University of Stuttgart). Papers considering the nexus of football and the media and the way these contribute to a collective memory and written from a variety of historical, theoretical, interdisciplinary and comparative perspectives are most welcome.

The following questions will be of particular interest:

How and to what extent does football contribute to the construction of a “European collective memory”?

How can specific transnational events and their constitution as national or continental “lieux de mémoire” best be described?

From a cultural historical perspective, what meanings do media producers, journalists and recipients attribute to European football competitions?

Which peculiar role did football play in transcending the pattern of East/West opposition during and after the Cold War?

The authors of the selected papers will be invited to present their contributions at the conference to be held in Stuttgart on 22 and 23 February 2013 ( 30 minutes for each paper; presentation in English).

Proposals are welcome from researchers at all stages of their career and from a variety of disciplines (History, Sports Science, Communication Sciences, Political Science, Sociology). Abstracts of a maximum of 2 pages, together with a short biographical note, should be submitted in English by 31 August 2012 and be sent to the following email addresses:

Wolfram.Pyta@hi.uni-stuttgart.de; Nils.Havemann@hi.uni-stuttgart.de