Physical Cultures of the Body

Virtual Conference, 2024

Home / Physical Cultures of the Body, A Virtual and In-Person Conference / Physical Cultures of the Body

 

Blue and yellow button which reads,

 

This graphic presents the flags of countries represented by all the presenters in the conference. In 2025, represented countries were: Greece, Northern Ireland, Sweden, India, South Africa, USA, Austria, Canada, England, Wales, Argentina, and France.

 

Physical Cultures of the Body Award Winners

David P. Webster Graduate Student Essay Award and  Terry Todd Award for Best Paper by a Working Scholar

Terry Todd (left) and David P. Webster, O.B.E. (right)

The David P. Webster Graduate Student Essay Award was won by Ben Miller, The University of Texas at Austin, for his essay  “The Renaissance Origins of Fencing as a Strength-Enhancing Practice.”

The Terry Todd Award for Best Paper by a Working Scholar was won by Simon Bronner, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, for his essay ““No Pain, No Gain”: Cultural and Psychological Dimensions of Overcoming Bodily Limits in Strength Athletics.”

A blue rectangular graphic with yellow text and headshots. Ben Miller is on the left, presented as the

Below is a list of the 2025 Physical Cultures of the Body conference presentation videos with whom the participants gave us written consent to publish the recording of their presentation.

 

DAY ONE

Suvam Maiti – Physical Exercises and the Bengali Hindu Women in the First Half of the 20th Century (1920-1947) as Represented in Bengali Periodicals

Sohini Saha – The Politics of Physical Cultures in 20th Century Colonial Calcutta

Hendrik Snyders – The “Puck Body” in Exile – from Berlin to Hurlingham, Johannesburg – the South African Ice Hockey Career of Rudi Ball, 1948-1952

Graeme Plint – Physical Culture and the South African Cadet Movement, 1912-1939

Dimitris Regalos – Resilience, Toughness, and Physical Education in the 20th Century USA

Conor Heffernan – Strength for Service: American Physical Culture in World War II

Emma Pihl Skoog – Strength, Success, and Social Mobility: Success Narratives in Early 20th Century Strength Sports

Alec Hurley – Television and the Reemergence of the “Nimble Fat Man,” Exploring Depictions of Athleticism in Popular Culture from Jackie Gleason to Peter Griffin

David Chapman – Life is Movement: A Great-grandson’s Search for Sandow

John Fair – VIM and VIGOUR, Branding Beefcake & Barbells in Early Muscle Magazines

Louis Neymon – The Sportification of French Weightlifting in the Beginning of the 20th Century: Evidences from La Vie au Grand Air and l’Education Physique

Keith Rathbone – Jim Thorpe in France: A Transatlantic Consideration of American and American-Indian Physical Culture

 

DAY TWO

Emilio Landolfi – Exercise Addiction

Simon Bronner – “No Pain, No Gain”: Cultural and Psychological Dimensions of Overcoming Bodily Limits in Strength Athletics

Peter Miller – The Bright Sunrise of Physical Culture: Felix Oswald and the Ancient World

Broderick Chow – The Physical Cultural Politics of the American Occupation of the Philippines: Camp John Hay and the Igorot Villages

Kristen Wilson – “When We’re in the Water, We’re Not in This World”: Women Aquatic Athletes of the Early 1900s and the Boundaries of Public Sport

Emalee Nelson Stone – The Bicycle and the Body: Revisiting the Victorian Vehicle in a Complicated Post-Roe v. Wade Era

Erin Crownover – “Chasing Excellence”: The Visionary Athletic Trainer, Tina Bonci

Derek Charles Catsam – Why are Long Jumpers No Longer Jumping Long? Track and Field Records and the Social Element of Human Limits

Corey H. Johnson – Autolykos the Pankratiast and the Body of a Mixed Martial Artist

Ben Miller – The Renaissance Origins of Fencing as a Strength-Enhancing Practice

Rachel Ozerkevich – Bodies in Motion? Naïve Painting and Bareknuckle Prizefighting

Jason Shurley – “Remarkable Lifting for Anyone, but Especially for a Woman”: A History of Women’s Powerlifting

Jan Todd – “How Do I Train to Get Stronger?” Fan Mail and the Evolution of Early Powerlifting Training Methods