Activities

2012

GLOBALSPORT project launch

Susana Narotzky (GRECO) & Niko Besnier, organizers, Wenner-Gren Foundation Symposium, “Crisis, Value, and Hope: Rethinking the Economy,” Sintra, Portugal

Niko Besnier, “The Athlete’s Body and the Global Condition: Tongan Rugby Players in Japan,” School of Social Sciences, University of Hull

Niko Besnier, “The Athlete’s Body and the Global Condition: Tongan Rugby Players in Japan,” Department of Anthropology, University of Hawai‘i Mānoa

Niko Besnier, “Masculinité sportive polynésienne dans le cadre de la mondialisation: Le cas des rugbymen tongiens au Japon et au-delà,” Université de la Polynésie Française, Pape‘ete, French Polynesia

Niko Besnier, discussant, “Mana: Translations and Transformations of a Classic Concept in Anthropology” Panel, American Anthropological Association Annual Meetings, San Francisco

2013

Niko Besnier, “Cargo Cults and Political Instability in Pacific Island Societies: Towards a Politics of Hope,” Cargo Cults and Contemporary Conflicts in Pacific Societies Conference, National Museum of Ethnology, Ōsaka

Niko Besnier, “Le corps de l’athlète et la condition globale: Les joueurs de rugby tongiens au Japon,” Séminaire “L’interdisciplinarité en action,” École nationale supérieure & École des hautes études en sciences sociales, Paris

Niko Besnier: exploratory fieldwork with Pacific Island rugby players in France

Niko Besnier and Susana Narotzky (GRECO), “The Moral in Precarious Economies: Negotiating the Boundaries of the Good,” Towards a Comparative Study of the Good Conference, Helsinki Collegium for Advance Studies, Helsinki

Niko Besnier: continuation of fieldwork with Pacific Island rugby players in Japan

Media coverage of Niko Besnier, “The Athlete’s Body and the Global Condition” (2012), various online news reports and Radio New Zealand 1 prime time

Niko Besnier, “Generations in Crisis? Resources, Reciprocity and Exchange” Roundtable, 20th International Conference of Europeanists, Amsterdam

Niko Besnier, discussant, “Crisis and Livelihood Changes in Europe’s Periphery,” 20th International Conference of Europeanists, Amsterdam

Niko Besnier, keynote address, “Sports in the Twenty-First Century: Global Connections, Local Hopes, National Conundrums,” Fiji Rugby Union Centennial Conference: Reflections on the Past, Present and Future, Suva, Fiji

Niko Besnier, Evening News interview, TV Fiji 1 and various local media coverage

Niko Besnier & Anneke Beerkens, presenters, Hirokazu Miyazaki, discussant, Youth and Work in Uncertain Times Workshop, National Museum of Ethnology, Ōsaka

Niko Besnier, “Globalization, Sports, and the Precarity of Masculinity,” Seminar, Graduate School of Asia-Pacific Studies, Waseda University, Tōkyō

Niko Besnier: exploratory fieldwork with Pacific Island rugby players in France

GLOBALSPORT postdoctoral fellows and graduate students begin

Niko Besnier, “New Mana: Transformations of a Classic Concept in Pacific Languages and Cultures” Workshop, Australian National University, Canberra

Niko Besnier, “Anthropology for the Current Times,” The Gazelle, New York University Abu Dhabi student newspaper (http://www.thegazelle.org/issue/14/opinion/besnier/)

Rencontre avec Niko Besnier, ethnologue, “Ne pas traiter la sexualité et le genre comme des objets séparés,” Les Nouvelles de Tahiti (print and online: http://www.lesnouvelles.pf/article/culture/des-mots-pour-le-dire)

Niko Besnier, “The Athlete’s Body and the Global Condition: Tongan Rugby Players in Japan and Beyond,” Department of Social Sciences, New York University Abu Dhabi

Project workshop “Care, generations, consumption” with guests Susana Narotzky (GRECO), Chris Gregory and Deborah Posel, in cooperation with projects CHEMICALYOUTH, GRECO, and LONG TERM CARE

Niko Besnier, Roundtable Panel Participant, “Kick It! The Anthropology of European Football” Conference, Institut für Europäische Ethnologie, Universität Wien

“Project workshop “Ethics in ethnography Part I” with guests Dick Willems and Thomas Guadamuz, in cooperation with projects CHEMICALYOUTH and LONG TERM CARE”

Niko Besnier, Daniel Guinness, Adnan Hossain, Meeting with the Mulier Institute, Dutch national research organization for sports, Utrecht, Netherlands

Niko Besnier, conferencia magistral, “Globalisación, deportes y la precaridad de la masculinidad,” Universidad de Sonora Hermosillo, Mexico

Niko Besnier, “Crisis, Valor y Esperanza: Repensando la economía,” Coloquio “Pensamiento ambiental emergente: Educación para la transformación,” Centro de investigaciones sobre la alimentación y el desarrollo (CIAD), Hermosillo, Sonora, Mexico

Mani Mitchell, counselor and intersex activist in Wellington (New Zealand), talks to the GLOBALSPORT team about gender verification in sport and intersex issues

Project workshop “Changing Masculinities” with guests Filippo Osella, Rachel Spronk, Heidi Härkönen, Fiona Parrott, Adnan Hossain and Eileen Moyer, in cooperation with project CHEMICALYOUTH

2014

Mike Peters conducts fieldwork with Kenya marathon runners in Japan

Niko Besnier, discussant, “Anthropological Knots: A Symposium,” Institute of Social & Cultural Anthropology, University of Helsinki, in association with Hau: Journal of Ethnographic Theory

Project workshop “Sport Mobilities” with guests Carmen Silva, Thomas Carter, Paul Darby and Sine Agergaard

PhD student Mike Peters quoted in New York Times, “America’s Team? Yankees May Be Japan’s Team Instead”

Niko Besnier, blog contribution, Cultural Anthropology website, Field Notes, Translation: Sport as an Interrogation of Social and Cultural Life (http://www.culanth.org/fieldsights/491-sports-translation)

Niko Besnier, “Qu’est-ce qu’une frontière pour un sportif international?” Journée d’étude “Dessiner les frontières,” Université Paris III

Daniel Guinness and Adnan Hossain, “Pleasure, Power and Gender in Sport”, advanced undergraduate thematic module designed and taught at UvA

Project workshop “Language, Inequality, and the Globalized New Economies” with guests Monica Heller, Cécile Canut, Alexandre Duchêne and Kathryn Woolard, in cooperation with projects CHEMICALYOUTH and GRECO

Niko Besnier falls off his bicycle at high speed and breaks his arm

Project workshop “Ethics in ethnography Part II” with guests Rena Lederman, Lise Dobrin and Anneke Beerkens, in cooperation with projects CHEMICALYOUTH, GRECO, and LONG TERM CARE

Adnan Hossain, “Intersexuality and sports: What is sexuality in practice?”, workshop participant, Radboud University, Nijmegen, Netherlands

Niko Besnier, discussant, Rebecca Jordan Young, “Fair Game? The Racial and Sexual Politics of Testosterone in Women Athletes,” Nijmegen Gender Studies & Sexualities Lecture

Project workshop “Body culture, medicine and the globalization of biopower” with guests Susan Brownell, Vinh Kim Nguyen, Alex Edmonds and Guillaume Lachenal, in cooperation with project CHEMICALYOUTH

Minke Nouwens, “Sex and Pleasure in Sport: A Woman’s Perspective on the Performance of Masculinity in a New Zealand Professional Rugby Team,” Guest Lecture for course “Pleasure, Power and Gender in Sport”, University of Amsterdam

Niko Besnier, “The Athlete’s Body and the Global Condition: Tongan Rugby Players in Japan and Beyond,” Department of Anthropology, Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, Geneva

Daniel Guinness, “Gender Negotiations and ‘Belonging’ in (Professional) Sports”, discussant, European Association for the Sociology of Sport, Utrecht, Netherlands

Niko Besnier, UvA Universiteitsdag seminar, “Sport migrants as world citizens”

Project workshop “Precarity, Globalization, and the Production of the Future” with guests Deborah Gewertz, Fred Errington, Anne Allison and Charles Piot, in cooperation with projects CHEMICALYOUTH and GRECO

Niko Besnier, “Les migrations sportive internationales: Perspectives postcoloniales,” “Corps postcolonial workshop,” Université de Lausanne

GLOBALSPORT project members, “Sport, Globalization and Migration” PhD seminar organized by Sine Agergaard, Aarhus University, Sandbjerg Estate, Sønderborg, Denmark

Niko Besnier, ed., Sport: Pleasure and Violence, Competition and Sociality. Curated issue of Open Anthropology 3(1), with an “Editor’s Note” (http://www.aaaopenanthro.org/)

Adnan Hossain, “Marginality of the Field of Anthropology of Sex and Sport”, European Association of Social Anthropologists Biennial Conference, Tallinn, Estonia

Niko Besnier and Susana Narotzky ( GRECO), “ Innovation and Continuity in Times of Uncertainty: Bridging Perspectives on Economic Life”, Panel organized at the European Association of Social Anthropologists Biennial Conference, Tallinn, Estonia

Niko Besnier and Maria Filomena Gregori, public debate (“dueto”), “Gênero e sexualidade: Perspectivas contemporâneas em um mundo globalizado,” 29a Reuniaõ Braziliera de Antropologia, Natal, Brazil

Niko Besnier, “Flows and Frictions: Athletic Migrants and the Dilemmas of Borders,” Simpósio Internacional “Deslocamentos: Raça e racismo em perspectiva comparativa,” pós evento da 29a Reuniaõ Braziliera de Antropologia, Natal, Brazil

Adnan Hossain and Daniel Guinness, preliminary fieldwork in Bangladesh and Argentina respectively

Daniel Guinness attends the International Seminar on Olympic Studies for Post-Graduate students, Olympia, Greece

Susana Narotzky (GRECO) and Niko Besnier, eds., Crisis, Value, and Hope: Rethinking the Economy. Supplement to Current Anthropology 55(S9). 154pp.

PhD students leave for their respective fieldwork locations: Mark Hann in Dakar (Senegal), Uroš Kovač in Buea and Limbe (Cameroon), Minke Nouwens in Wellington (New Zealand), Douglas Kwaw Koi Thompson in Ljubljana (Slovenia); Mike Peters continues conducting fieldwork in various locations in Japan

Daniel Guinness and Adnan Hossain, “Pleasure, Power and Gender in Sport”, advanced undergraduate thematic module taught at UvA

“Adnan Hossain and Daniel Guinness, “Pleasure, Power and Masculinity in Sport” and Niko Besnier, “Masculinity, the Sport Industries, and the Global Circulation of Athletes,” ICSM Symposium on Men and Masculinities, Izmir, Turkey”

Heidi Härkönen, PhD Helsinki, whose work concerns changing relations of care, provision, and love in post-socialist times in Cuba, joins the project as a visiting researcher

Adnan Hossain, “Masculinity, Pleasure and Power”, Global Studies Seminar Series, University of Sussex, UK

Mark Hann takes part in “Atelier régional sur les migrants en situation de crise en Afrique de l’Ouest,” DIADEM workshop, Dakar, Senegal

Mark Hann is teaching assistant in the course “Médiation interculturelle: identités, mobilités, conflits,” MITRA Master Erasmus Mundus, Université Cheikh Anta Diop, Dakar, Senegal

Niko Besnier’s field site visit to Douglas Kwaw Koi Thompson, Ljubljana, Slovenia

Uroš Kovač interviewed about his fieldwork on Mediafrique Radio (Sports Desk), Buea, Cameroon

Niko Besnier, “Flows and Frictions: Athletic Migrants and the Dilemmas of Borders”, 113th Annual Meetings of the American Anthropological Association, Washington, DC

2015

PhD student Paveł Banaś joins GLOBALSPORT

Daniel Guinness conducts fieldwork in Argentina

Niko Besnier takes part in the 89th Annual Meeting of the Linguistic Society of America, Portland, OR, in his capacity as the American Anthropological Association’s Executive Board liaison to the Linguistic Society of America

Niko Besnier elected to the Executive Council of the European Association of Social Anthropologists for a term of two years

Thesis defense, Perrine Lachenal, “Self-défense féminine dans le Caire en revolution: Techniques du genre et jeux de violence”, Université Aix-Marseille, Aix-en-Provence, thesis directed by Laurence Hérault, Niko Besnier is a member of the defense committee

Niko Besnier takes part in the Benelux PI-Centric Workshop, European Research Council Executive Agency, Brussels

Adnan Hossain begins fieldwork in Trinidad, during which he is a research affiliate at the Institute for Gender and Development Studies (IGDS) at the University of the West Indies, Saint Augustine, Trinidad & Tobago

Susana Narotzky and Niko Besnier, co-organizers, ERC Advanced Grants in Social & Cultural Anthropology Principal Investigators’ Workshop, Universitat de Barcelona

Niko Besnier, “Seeking the Good Life in the Sport Industries: Care, Scale, and the Precarity of Athletic Migrants”, Conference on Domestic Moral Economy, co-organized by Christopher Gregory and Karen Sykes, School of Social Sciences, University of Manchester

Niko Besnier takes part in the Feminist Economics Workshop, GRECO Project, Susana Narotzky, organizer, Pierrette Hondagneu-Sotelo, Isabelle Guerin, and Frances Pine, invited speakers, University of Barcelona

Niko Besnier, “Seeking the Good Life in the Sport Industries”, invited seminar, Departments of Anthropology and Research Methods in the Social Sciences, University of Vienna

Mark Hann, in collaboration with Mamadou Khouma Gueye and Plan B, filming of “Yëngël Gësëm” documentary, Dakar

Adnan Hossain, “Indo-Caribbean Men and Masculinities in Cricket in Postcolonial Trinidad”, paper presentation, 40th Annual Conference of the Caribbean Studies Association, New Orleans, Louisiana

Niko Besnier, “Masculinité, mobilités sportives et enjeux d’échelle: Les rugbymen polynésiens entre le local et le global”, Programme Interdisciplinaire de Recherche en Sciences du Sport et du Mouvement Humain, Université de Toulouse Paul Sabatier

Daniel Guinness takes part in the Curso de Administración Deportivo, Comité Olímpico Argentino, Santa Fe, Argentina

Niko Besnier visits Mark Hann in his field site, Dakar, Senegal

Adnan Hossain: Fieldwork trip to Guyana

Daniel Guinness, “La Construcción del Género por Clubes Deportivos”, Universidad Nacional de Litoral, Santa Fe, Argentina

Niko Besnier, “Masculinité, mobilités sportives et enjeux d’échelle: Les rugbymen polynésiens entre le local et le global”, Grand Départ: Sport as Identity Marker in Colonial and Postcolonial Settings in the 19th and 20th Centuries, Van Gogh Exchange Programme, University of Amsterdam

Niko Besnier, “Globalization, Sport, and the Precarity of Masculinity”, invited paper, 20th Congress of the European College of Sport Sciences, Malmø

Niko Besnier becomes editor-in-chief of the journal American Ethnologist

Adnan Hossain: Interviews/meetings with the CLR James Cricket Research Centre and CLR James Cricket Research Centre Library at the University of the West Indies, Cave Hill and Barbados Cricket Association

Mike Peters: fieldwork trip to Kenya

Mike Peters: Volunteering at the Shoe4Africa Childen’s Hospital (East and Central Africa’s first-ever public children’s hospital) children’s race and shoe distribution events in Eldoret, Kenya

Daniel Guinness: fieldwork trip to Mendoza, Argentina

Daniel Guinness:Collaboration with Robert Malengreau in Morro do Castro, greater Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Niko Besnier visits Adnan Hossain in his field site, Port-of-Spain, Trinidad and Tobago

Community screening of “Yëngël Gësëm” documentary by Mark Hann, Mamadou Khouma Gueye and Plan B, Guinaw Rails, Dakar, Senegal

Adnan Hossain: Meetings with the West Indies Cricket Board and Leeward Cricket Association in Antigua

Niko Besnier participates in the Annual General Meeting of the European Association of Social Anthropologists, Prague, and, with Susana Narotzky, leads a capacity-building workshop on ERC grant applications

GLOBALSPORT team workshop, organized by Daniel Guinness and Adnan Hossein

Mark Hann and Uroš Kovač, “Subjective Experiences of Aspiring Football Migrants in West and Central Africa” and Niko Besnier, “Locating Sport Migrants in Structures of Kinship and Indebtedness”, 9th World Communication Conference on Sport and Society, “Global Sport: Reform or Revolution?” Play the Game 2015, Aarhus, Denmark

Sebastián Fuentes of the Facultad Latinoamericana de Ciencias Sociales (FLACSO) and Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Cientificas y Técnicas (CONICET), Argentina, visits the GLOBALSPORT project

Adnan Hossain, Dan Guinness and Sebastián Fuentes, Uroš Kovač, and Mark Hann present at the “Masculinity and Mobilities: Ethnographic Approaches to Men and Change” workshop, co-organized by Mark Johnson (Goldsmiths C), Frances Pine (Goldsmiths C), and Niko Besnier, with Ward Keeler (U Texas Austin) as discussant, Goldsmiths College London

Niko Besnier attends the 114th annual meetings of the American Anthropological Association as a member of the Executive Board of the American Ethnological Society and a member of the Task Force on AAA’s engagement with Israel/Palestine

Niko Besnier is discussant, “Language and Transgender” workshop, School of Languages and Cultures, Victoria University of Wellington

Mark Hann, “Situating Trafficking: Family Pressure, Self-Entrepreneurship, and Exploitation in Precarious Football Migration Projects”, “Ensemble pour la Protection des Jeunes Joueurs de Football en Afrique” international conference, Dakar, Senegal

Mark Hann conducts follow-up field research in Dakar

Adnan Hossain conducts field research in Dhaka, Bangladesh

2016

Paweł Banaś conducted fieldwork in Poland

Daniel Guinness and Niko Besnier conduct field research in Fiji; both are research affiliates with the School of Social Sciences, University of the South Pacific; Daniel Guinness trains and plays with the Lomaiviti Rugby Team, Raiwaqa, Suva

Adnan Hossain and Daniel Guinness, “Pleasure, Power and Gender in Sport”, advanced undergraduate thematic module designed and taught at UvA

Daniel Guinness, “The Global Rugby System and the Experience of Fijians within It”, seminar, School of Social Sciences, University of the South Pacific; Lomaiviti Rugby Team (including Daniel Guinness) vs Suva Fire Squad friendly game, Buckhurst Bidesi Grounds, Suva

Niko Besnier, “Sports Mobilities across Borders: Postcolonial Perspectives”, seminar, School of Social Sciences, University of the South Pacific

Niko Besnier at the American Ethnological Society Spring Meeting, Washington DC

Niko Besnier, “Getting your Article Published” workshop, American Ethnological Society Spring Meeting, Washington DC

Niko Besnier takes part in “The Future of Academic Publishing” roundtable, American Ethnological Society Spring Meeting, Washington DC

Niko Besnier conducts field research in Tonga

Niko Besnier interviewed about Tongan rugby players in global rugby on 88.1FM radio, Nuku’alofa, Tonga (in Tongan)

Niko Besnier, “Tongan Rugby Players in World Rugby”, Futa Helu Memorial Lecture Series, ‘Atenisi Institute, Nuku’alofa, Tonga

Paveł Banaś conducts field research in Nigeria

Uroš Kovač conducts exploratory field research in Poland and Slovakia

Niko Besnier, “Mobility, Immobility, and Masculinity: Imagining a Future in the Global Sports Industries”, “Fabricating Futures in economies of Finiteness: Aspirations/Immobilities, Revivals/Revolutions” Seminar Series, Immigration, Minorities, and Migrants Research Centre, KU Leuven

Niko Besnier and Daniel Guinness, “Global Sport Industries, Migrations, and Comparison of Scales”, “Comparing Culture(s): Reinvigorating Explicit Comparison as a Method in Anthropology” Conference, Institute of Social and Cultural Anthropology, Universität Hamburg

Niko Besnier is guest professor, Faculté des Sciences du Sport et du Mouvement Humain, université de Toulouse III Paul Sabatier

Adnan Hossain, “Masculinity and erotic subjectivity in ethnographic fieldwork in Trinidad”, 41st Conference of the Caribbean Studies Association, Port-au-Prince, Haiti

Niko Besnier, “Les politiques identitaires entre le local et le global: la mobilisation transgenre aux îles Tonga (Pacifique sud)”, seminar, Institut Fédératif d’Etudes et de Recherches Interdisciplinaires Santé Société, and Centre de Recherche, Sciences Sociales, Sport et Corps, université de Toulouse III Paul Sabatier

Film Screening, Wrestling with Hope — Yëngël Gësëm, a film by Mamadou Khouma Geye and Mark Hann, Department of Anthropology, University of Amsterdam
Watch film trailer here

Daniel Guinness, “Sociolinguistic Dynamics of Global Rugby Union: Authority of Professionalism, Authenticity of Local Identities, and Performance to Multiple Audiences”, “Language, Mobility and the Sports Economy” panel, Sociolinguistics Symposium 21, Murcia, Spain

Workshop, “Sport and masculinities: How to think masculinities in the sports world today”, Centre de Recherche, Sciences Sociales, Sport et Corps, université de Toulouse III Paul Sabatier: Mark Hann, “Sporting Bodies: Football, Wrestling and Migration in Senegal”, Daniel Guinness, “Club Argentina: Class and gender in a globalized world”, Niko Besnier, “Masculinities in a Global Sporting Context”

Daniel Guinness conducts fieldwork in Argentina

Mike Peters, “Running, Spending, and Saving in Japan“, Anthropology News 57(7-8): 3-4; Mark Hann, “Wrestling with Uncertainty in Dakar’s Banlieue“, Anthropology News 57(7-8): 8-11; Daniel Guinness and Sebastián Fuentes, “Argentine Rugby Gets Professional“, Anthropology News 57(7-8): 14-15; Susan Brownell and Niko Besnier, “Sport Mega-Events and Global Political Economy“, Anthropology News 57(7-8): 16-17.

Daniel Guinness and Niko Besnier with the Euro-Fiji Rugby Team at the Brussels Rugby Sevens, followed by ceremonies and socializing at Fiji House, hosted by H.E. Deo Saran, Ambassador of the Republic of Fiji to the European Union

Domenica Calabrò takes part in the Haka Rugby Camp in Piacenza, Italy

Niko Besnier, Daniel Guinness, and Mark Hann. “Brexit: Colonial Traces and Possible Troubles for Global Sport.” Social Anthropology 24: 499–500. Reprinted online on Allegra Lab.

14th Biennial Conference of the European Association of Social Anthropologists, “Anthropological legacies and human futures”, University of Milano-Bicocca: “Transnational sport migrants and human futures” panel, co-organized by Carmen Rial (Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina) and Niko Besnier, with papers by Mark Hann (“Mystical wrestlers vs rational footballers: enacting masculinity in Senegal’s sporting arenas”), Uroš Kovač (“Sports, Pentecostalism, and desire for mobility among aspiring footballers in Cameroon”), Michael Peters (“Dependence, obligation and improving livelihoods: the importance of remittances for Kenyan migrant athletes in Japan”), Paweł Banaś (“‘Looking good and moving on’: not-so-successful West African football migrants in Poland”), Domenica Gisella Calabrò (“The global warrior and his quest for recognition and inclusion: exploring the different facets of the transnational mobility of male Māori rugby players”), Sebastián Fuentes (“‘¿De qué vivís?’ Historical and contemporary notes about the significance of work among Argentine rugby players”), Mariane Pisani (“The female soccer in São Paulo city: professionalization, gender, sexuality and race among women’s soccer players”), Adnan Hossain (“Race, body and competing marginality in postcolonial cricket in Trinidad”), and others; “Getting your Article Published” workshop, run by Niko Besnier; “Writing ERC Grant Proposals” workshop, run by Susana Narotzky (Universitá de Barcelona) and Niko Besnier

Adnan Hossain, “Race and Cricket Narratives in the West Indies“, Anthropology News

Niko Besnier and Susan Brownell, “Your Olympic Team May Be an Illusion“, SAPIENS

Mike Peters conducts fieldwork in Kenya

Niko Besnier conducts fieldwork with Susan Brownell at the Rio Olympic Games

Niko Besnier and Susan Brownell, “Rio’s Olympic Festival in the Streets: Photo Essay“, SAPIENS

Susan Brownell and Niko Besnier, “Zika at the Rio Games: Pandemic or Panic?“, SAPIENS

Uroš Kovač, “Soccer, Kinship and Migration Dreams in Cameroon“, Anthropology News

Niko Besnier interviewed in “Multi-nation sports teams are examples of equal-opportunity societies” by Ben Deighton, Horizon: The EU Research & Innovation Magazine

Susan Brownell and Niko Besnier, “Do the Olympics Make Economic Sense?“, SAPIENS

Niko Besnier and Susan Brownell, “The Untold Story Behind Fiji’s Astonishing Gold Medal“, SAPIENS

Niko Besnier visits Sebastián Fuentes and Daniel Guinness in Buenos Aires

Niko Besnier, “Lograr publicar un artículo. La experiencia en American Ethnologist”, seminar, Facultad de Ciencias Sociales, Universidad de Buenos Aires

Book launch of Sebastián Fuentes’s new book, co-authored with Mariana Chaves and Luisa Vecino, Experiencias juveniles de la desigualdad: Fronteras y merecimientos en sectores populares, medios altos y altos, Universidad Nacional de Lanús, Buenos Aires

Niko Besnier, Conférence de rentrée, École normale supérieure, Paris, “Entre Nord et Sud: Industries sportives, masculinité et précarité globale”

Domenica Calabrò conducts fieldwork in Aotearoa New Zealand

Mike Peters interviewed in Aftenposten’s A-Magasinet (Oslo), Frode Saugestad, “Nasjonens helter: Langdistanseløperne er Japans nasjonalhelter“

“Género, Políticas de Género y Procesos de Profesionalización: Militares, Docentes y Deportistas” workshop organized by Sebastián Fuentes; Sebastián Fuentes, “Notas para pensar las relaciones de género y educación como tecnologías de gobierno: políticas educativas y políticas deportivas,” Daniel Guinness, “Masculinidades: Formaciones y trayectorias juveniles en la expansión del rugby global,” Facultad Latinoamericana de Ciencias Socialies (FLACSO), Buenos Aires

Sebastián Fuentes conducts fieldwork in Formosa, Argentina

Niko Besnier is discussant and roundtable chair, “Gouverner les pratiques économiques” international conference, École des hautes études en sciences sociales, Paris

Niko Besnier is interviewed for the SPORTMIGRATION Newsletter

Mark Hann’s GLOBALSPORT blog piece on ethnicity and wrestling in Dakar in The Conversation Africa and Johannesburg’s Guardian and Mail, reblogged on SAPIENS

Niko Besnier discusses Susana Narotzky’s work, “L’économie vue par le bas: inégalité, injustice et dignité”, “Oikonomia: Gouverner les pratiques quotidiennes” seminar, École normale supérieure, Paris

Niko Besnier is discussant, Journée d’études “Mobilités sociales, mobilités spatiales“, École normale supérieure, Paris

Susana Narotzky discusses Niko Besnier’s work, “Mobilités sportives globales: Économie des corps et circulations post-coloniales”, “Oikonomia: Gouverner les pratiques quotidiennes” seminar, École normale supérieure, Paris

Uroš Kovač, “Performing and Contesting Tradition: Footballers and Wrestlers in Southwest Cameroon” and Mark Hann, “Uncertain Trajectories in Senegalese Lutte avec Frappe”; Film Screening, Wrestling with Hope — Yëngël Gësëm, Netherlands Association for African Studies (NVAS) Africa Day: Sport in Africa, University of Utrecht

Niko Besnier in The Conversation Global: “From the Pacific Islands to France: migration, hope and deceit in the rugby industry“

Niko Besnier in The Conversation France: “« Mercenaire »: migration, espoirs et tromperies dans l’industrie du rugby“

Roundtable, “The Body, Masculinity and Precarity”, chaired by Jeanette Edwards, with Niko Besnier, Brian Heaphy, Deborah Jump and Tony Simpson, School of Social Sciences, University of Manchester

Uroš Kovač in The Conversation Global: “‘Juju’ and ‘Jars’: How African Athletes Challenge Western Notions of Doping“

Domenica Calabró, “Rugby, Māori Masculinities, and the Transnational Search for Recognition”, Seminar, Te Kawa a Māui – The School of Māori Studies, Victoria University of Wellington

Niko Besnier, “Getting your Article Published” workshop, Department of Social Anthropology, University of Manchester

Niko Besnier, “Writing ERC Grant Proposals” workshop, Department of Social Anthropology, University of Manchester

Niko Besnier, “Rethinking Masculinity Through Sport”, Seminar, Department of Social Anthropology, University of Manchester

Sebastián Fuentes takes part in roundtable, “Jerarquías y corporalidades: cuando la diferencia se hace cuerpo”, Proyecto “Procesos de jerarquización en la Argentina contemporánea”, National Scientific and Technical Research Council (CONICET), Universidad de Buenos Aires

Sebastián Fuentes, with Pablo Di Leo, Nicolás Damin, Melina Vázquez, Rafael Blanco, Ana Natalucci, “Jóvenes, juvenil, juventudes: Hacia la búsqueda de nuevos debates“, Argumentos: Revista de Critica Social, No 18

American Anthropological Association 115th Annual Meetings, Minneapolis, “Sport Careers, Religious Conviction, and Uncertain Futures”, Daniel Guinness, organizer, Adnan Hossain, chair, Susan Brownell (University of Missouri St Louis), discussant, with presentations by Mark Hann (“Between Mysticism and Modernity: Contradictory Expectations and ‘Mystical Warfare’ in Two Senegalese Sports”), Uroš Kovač (“Athletic and Religious Bodies: Football and Charismatic Christianity among Young Men in Cameroon”), Daniel Guinness (“A Trinity of Destinies: Faith, Ethno-Nationalism and Raw Talent in Fijian Professional Rugby Aspirations”), Sebastián Fuentes (“Traditional Values and New Futures of Youth: Personal Catholic Experience and ‘Team Spirit’ Among Privileged Rugby Players in Buenos Aires”), Carmen Rial, Federal University of Santa Catarina (“The Brazilian Football Players: Global Pastors of Neo-Pentecostal Religions”)

American Anthropological Association 115th Annual Meetings, Minneapolis, “Gambling with Uncertainty: Transnational Mobility and the Global Sport Industries”, Niko Besnier, organizer and chair, Ayse Çağlar (University of Vienna), discussant, with presentations by Niko Besnier (“Why Do an Anthropology of Global Sport Mobilities in the 21st Century?”), Thomas Carter, University of Brighton (“Accidents, Injuries and Apparatuses: On Athletes’ Precarious Mobility and Conditions of Immobility in the Global Sport Industries”), Adnan Hossain (“Body, ‘Race’, and Belonging in Postcolonial Caribbean Cricket”), Paweł Banás (“Overcoming Marginality: West African Soccer Players in Poland”), Michael Peters (“Coping with Uncertainty: Kenyan Migrant Athletes in Japan”), and Domenica Calabrò (“The Warrior, the Player, and the Man: Recognition, Precarity and Subjectivities in the Transnational Mobility of Māori Rugby Men”)

GLOBALSPORT intensive writing workshop, Palm Springs, California, with Susan Brownell (University of Missouri St Louis) as discussant

2017

Daniel Guinness and Niko Besnier, “Nation, Nationalism, and Sport: Fijian Rugby in the Local-Global Nexus“, Anthropological Quarterly 89(4): 1109–1142

Domenica Calabró, “Le guerrier, l’athlète et l’homme. La construction de la masculinité maorie dans le rugby et les enjeux de l’indigénéité”, Seminar, Centre de recherche et de documentation sur l’Océanie (CREDO), École des hautes études en sciences sociales, Marseille

Mark Hann in Senegal for additional fieldwork

« Corps en lutte au Sénégal » conference, Université Cheikh Anta Diop, Dakar: Niko Besnier, « Corps, sports et futurs : la lutte sénégalaise dans un contexte global »; Mark Hann, « Entre mystique et métier : trajectoires précaires de jeunes espoirs en lutte sénégalaise

Niko Besnier, “Hommes, femmes et bien plus encore!“, radio interview with Nicole Duparc, émission Espace Deux, RTS Genève

Niko Besnier, “Société: Un et un font trois“, radio interview with Linn Levy, émission Vertigo, RTS Genève

Niko Besnier, “Troisième genre: voyage à travers des identités à géométrie variable“, public lecture, Semaine de l’Égalité 2017, Ville de Genève and Institut des Études Genre de l’Université de Genève, Université de Genève

Niko Besnier, “Repenser la masculinité sous l’optique du sport: footballeurs camerounais, lutteurs sénégalais et rugbymen fidjiens”, Seminar, Laboratoire d’anthropologie culturelle et sociale, Université de Lausanne

Niko Besnier takes part in Jérôme Berthoud’s preliminary thesis defense, Institut des sciences du sport, Université de Lausanne

Niko Besnier, “La complexité du genre“, radio interview with Julien Magnollay, émission Tribu, RTS Lausanne

Mark Hann, “Wrestling With the Culture of Drug Testing in Sports“, SAPIENS

Niko Besnier, “Rethinking Masculinity through Sport: Cameroonian Football Players, Fijian Rugby Boys, and Senegalese Wrestlers”, Seminar, Department of Anthropology, Austrian Academy of Sciences

Niko Besnier, ““Der Hyper-Macho wird es hier nicht schaffen”“, Der Standard (Wein), Forschung Spezial, p. 10

Daniel Guinness conducts fieldwork in Australia

Niko Besnier participates in roundtable, “Disaffection, Resentment, and Despair”, UCLA-UvA workshop, “Crisis and the Ordinary”, Amsterdam

Niko Besnier, “Sport et migration“, radio interview with Julien Magnollay, émission Tribu, RTS Lausanne

Niko Besnier, “Repenser la masculinité par le sport : lutteurs sénégalais, footballeurs camerounais, et rugbymen fidjiens”, séminaire “Ce que le sport fait aux sciences sociales“, organized by Jérôme Beauchez, Julien Clément, Nicolas Damont, and Éric Wittersheim, École des hautes études en sciences sociales, Paris

Niko Besnier participates in roundtable « Sport et Recherche », Rencontre annuelle du fonds de dotation de l’École des hautes études en sciences sociales, Paris

Domenica Calabrò conducted fieldwork in France

Niko Besnier, “Rethinking Masculinity in the Neoliberal Order: Cameroonian Footballers, Fijian Rugby Players, and Senegalese Wrestlers”, Seminar, Department of Anthropology, University of Bergen

Niko Besnier gives workshop, “La publicatió en revisits d’impacte”, followed by a workshop by Susana Narotzky and Niko Besnier on ERC grant applications and management, Department of Social Anthropology, University of Barcelona

Niko Besnier gives a one-day workshop on “Publishing in International Journals”, Department of Social Anthropology, University of St. Andrews

Joint seminar with CHEMICALYOUTH project, Ilana Gershon (Indiana University), “Me™: Hiring in a Neoliberal Age”, followed by workshop on neoliberalism

GLOBALSPORT end-of-project conference, Vila Lanna, Prague, with guests Sine Agergaard, Joseph Alter, Susan Brownell, Paul Darby, Jeanette Edwards, James Esson, Richard Giulianotti, Leo Hopkinson, Yoko Kanemasu, William Kelly, Linsday Krasnoff, Wolfram Manzenreiter, John McManus, Dino Numerato, Sari Pietikäinen, Carmen Silvia de Moraes Rial, and Cheikh Tidiane Wane

Niko Besnier, “Rethinking Masculinity through Sport: Cameroonian Footballers, Fijian Rugby Boys, Senegalese Wrestlers”, Institute of Ethnology, Charles University, Prague

Niko Besnier, “From Global South to Global North: Sport, Gender, and Precarity”, Keynote lecture, 14th European Association for the Sociology of Sport Conference, Faculty of Physical Education and Sport, Charles University, Prague

Niko Besnier takes part in PhD defense, Jérôme Berthoud, “Devenir, être et avoir été un footballeur camerounais: Des arrêts de carrière en tension”, Institut des sciences du sport, Faculté des sciences sociales et politiques, Université de Lausanne

Daniel Guinness and Scott McKay, “Historical Lines and Contemporary Contours: Fijians in the Australian Rugby Industry”, presented at the invited workshop, “Labour Lines: Indigenous and Pacific Islander Experiences of Labour Mobility in Australia”, Deakin University, Melbourne

Niko Besnier takes part in roundtable, “The Coming East Asian Olympic Games: What PyeongChang 2018, Tokyo 2020, and Beijing/Zhangjiakou 2022 Tell Us about East Asia’s Place in the World”, organized by Kang Shin-pyo, chaired by Susan Brownell, with the additional participation of John MacAloon and Ru Xiuying, Asian Studies in Asia Conference, Korea University, Seoul

Visit to the PyeongChang-Gangneung Winter Olympics venues, organized by Kang Shin-pyo

Mark Hann, “Why African Fans Love European Football: A Senegalese Perspective“, The Conversation Africa, republished as “Senegal’s Euro-football Love Affair”, Mail & Guardian, print edition, 7 July, p. 37

Adnan Hossain, “Can Caribbean Cricket Get Its (Political) Groove Back?” The Conversation Global, republished in Huffington Post

Mark Hann, “The Demba Diop Stadium Football Crush: Is this Senegal’s Hillsborough?“, The Conversation Africa

GLOBALSPORT intensive writing retreat, Villa Grabella, Pitsidia, Crete, Greece, with guests Susan Brownell and Leo Hopkinson

End of European Research Council funding

Niko Besnier is Research Professor, Department of Social Inquiry, La Trobe University

Niko Besnier, workshop on journal publishing Part 1, Department of Social Inquiry, La Trobe University

Niko Besnier, workshop on journal publishing Part 2, Department of Social Inquiry, La Trobe University

Niko Besnier, Department of Anthropology seminar, “Transgender, Shifting Morality, and the Bifocality of Culture in Tonga”, Australian National University

Niko Besnier, workshop on journal publishing, Department of Anthropology, Australian National University

Niko Besnier, Public lecture, “Rethinking Masculinity through Sport: Cameroonian Footballers, Fijian Rugby Players, Senegalese Wrestlers”, School of Social Sciences, Australian National University

Niko Besnier presents the work of the GLOBALSPORT project on Pacific Islanders in world rugby in the Pacific Research Community Symposium, La Trobe University

Domenica Gisela Calabrò appointed to a one-year lecturership in Gender Studies, School of Social Sciences, University of the South Pacific

Niko Besnier, workshop on grant proposal writing and project management, Department of Social Inquiry, La Trobe University

Niko Besnier is commentator in the Panel Discussion on the work and life of Joel S. Kahn, La Trobe University

Niko Besnier gives the 2017 Joel Kahn Annual Anthropology Lecture, La Trobe University, “Sport, Masculinity, and Neoliberalism: Cameroonian Footballers, Fijian Rugby Players, and Senegalese Wrestlers”

Niko Besnier, workshop on journal publishing, School of Social and Political Sciences, University of Melbourne

Niko Besnier, “Publishing a Peer-Reviewed Journal Article: Notes from a Journal Editor” workshop, 116th Annual Meetings of the American Anthropological Association, Washington, DC

Susan Brownell and Niko Besnier at the University of California Press display, celebrating the publication of The Anthropology of Sport: Bodies, Borders, Biopolitics, 116th Annual Meetings of the American Anthropological

Niko Besnier visits the Cold Rush Project, directed by Sari Pietikäinen (University of Jyväskylä), in Levi, near Kittilä, Finnish Lapland, along with project co-PIs Alexandre Duchêne and Monica Heller; Levi is the site of the FIS Alpine Skiing World Cup every year, an event whose social and economic consequences are part of the focus of the Cold Rush project