Physical Cultures of the Body

Virtual Conference, 2021

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 Rachel Ozerkevich, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, for her essay “Crafting the Ideal Woman: Photomechanical Manipulation in Edmond Desbonnet’s Physical Culture Publications.”

The Terry Todd Award for Best Paper by a Working Scholar was won by Anastasija Ropa, Latvian Academy of Sport Education, for her essay “Physical Culture in Renaissance Europe: Some Evidence from Pietro Monte’s Collectanea.

Below, you can watch video recordings of the paper presentations for each section of the conference. We have only published recordings of presentations by authors who gave permission to do so.

Physical Culture in India (Session Video)

Debleen Biswas
Exploring the Human Body in Hindu Religious Ritual of Dnda Nacha in Odisha

Sadia Hasan
Inking the Body: Tato Tradition in North East Inda

Physical Culture Writers (Session Video)

Anastasija Ropa
Physical Culture in Renaissance Europe: Some Evidence from Pietro Monte’s Collectanea

Alec S. Hurley
Champion, Columnist, and (Physical) Culturist: Arthur F. Gay’s Influence on the American Strength Community in the Interwar Era (link to article)

Olympic Athletes and Identity (Session Video)

Jannick Schlewing & Dr. Francois J. Cleophas
A South African Weightlifter Who Competed Against South Africa (link to article)

Broderick D.V. Chow
出る釘は打たれる: Tommy Kono’s Performances of Strength and The Formation of Asian American Subjectivity (link to article)

Gazing at the Body (Session Video)

Isabel Fontbona & Airnel T. Abarra
Physical Culture and Performing Arts: Life Journey in a Female Bodybuilder’s Performance Arts in Contemporary Times Through a Dual Analysis Lens

Tatiana Konrad
Black Men in White Sports: Film and Racial Politics in 1930s-40s’ America

Sport and Performance (Session Video)

Eduardo Lautaro Galak
Training the Eye: Sportization and Aestheticization Processes of the Earliest Olympic Games

Richard Ravalli
Body Magic: Lisa Lyon and The Feminist Workings of Female Bodybuilding’s First Celebrity

Women & Fitness (Session Video)

Dominika Czarnecka
Between Belonging and Fitting In: Exploring the Intersections of Aging, Gender and Physical Activity from an Anthropological Perspective (link to article)

Kristen Wilson
A Place for Women: Women’s University Gymnasiums, 1867-1969 (link to article)

Care of Athletes (Session Video)

Conor Curran
Irish professional soccer players and the treatment of their injuries, 1950-2010

Tracie Canada
Playing through a Pandemic: Football Bodies and Institutional Care

Desbonnet’s Physical Culture (Session Video)

Max Leconte
Desbonnet’s site/sight of reform: physical and visual culture in early 20th century France

Rachel Ozerkevich
Crafting the Ideal Woman: Photomechanical Manipulation in Edmond Desbonnet’s Physical Culture Publications

Masculinity and the Body (Session Video)

Matthew Barnard
The Australian Body: Masculinity, Whiteness, and Heterosexuality in 1980’s Film (link to article)

Daniel Hoyoon Cho
Forms of American Masculinity and the Decline of the U.S. Whaling Industry in the 19th Century

Strongest Man & Strongest Women, Reconsidering Sandow & Minerva (Session Video)

Conor Heffernan
Developing the Perfect Man: Eugen Sandow, the Great Competition and Eugenics in Edwardian Britain

Jan Todd
Meditations on the Mystery of Minerva