International Cricket Conference for Huddersfield

Howzat!

The University of Huddersfield is set to host a major international cricket conference.

Entitled 'Cricket and Community: Local, National and Global Perspectives', it will take place in April next year.

And both academics and cricket enthusiasts will attend the two-day event.

Dr Peter Davies, Director of the university's Cricket Research Centre, said: "This is a major event for the university to stage and we are looking forward immensely to welcoming academics, students and cricket-lovers to Huddersfield."

Special guest at the conference will be Dr Boria Majumdar, a Calcutta-based academic who has written extensively about the history of Indian cricket and the modern global game.

Other speakers include Professor Tony Collins of Leeds Met University, Dr Dean Allen of Northumbria University and Dr Tony Bateman, Honorary Visiting Research Fellow at the International Centre of Sport History and Culture, Leicester De Montfort University.

And topics covered will include cricket in colonial South Africa, cricket in the inter-war period, cricket in Brighouse and Todmorden, and the relationship between cricket and churches and cricket and public houses.

Dr Davies explained: "Huddersfield has gained a reputation for its cricket research in recent years and this conference will showcase what we've been doing.

"We want academics from around the world to know that the Cricket Research Centre is doing important work in this regard."

A number of national cricket organisations will have stalls at the event - and the conference proceedings will be published in the academic journal, Sport in Society.

Vice-Chancellor of the University of Huddersfield, Professor Bob Cryan, will officially open the event.

The conference will take place on Thursday 14 and Friday 15 April 2010, and will also include a special visit to Lascelles Hall CC, one of the oldest and most famous cricket clubs in England.

It costs £50 (institutional) or £25 (individual) to attend.

Contact Dr Davies on 472405 or via p.j.davies@hud.ac.uk for further information.

See also http://www2.hud.ac.uk/mhm/history/research/cricket.

Lecture on Women's Cricket

A pioneering cricket historian will be giving a special lecture at the University of Huddersfield.

Dr Philippa Velija, a senior lecturer in Sociology at York St. John University, will be speaking on women and cricket.

And the provocative title of her session is: '"They're all male chauvinistic chumps - Howzat for a view?": Media Representations of Female Cricketers from 1998-2008'.

Dr Velija will be lecturing at the University of Huddersfield Cricket Research Centre - and she'll be the third guest lecturer this academic year.

"It will be wonderful to welcome Dr Velija to Huddersfield," said Centre coordinator Dr Peter Davies.

"She is a distinguished sociologist who has written a number of pathbreaking articles on the sociology of cricket."

Dr Velija's research interests include gender and sport, sport and social exclusion, and sport and social theory.

Her publications include, ‘"Look it’s a Girl": Cricket and Gender Relations in the UK’ (Sport in Society) and ‘Female Incursions into Cricket’s “Male Preserve”’ in Tribal Play: Sport Subcultures and Countercultures.

She has also given papers at the Commonwealth Cricket Conference in London and in Montreal, Buenos Aires and Thessaloniki.

The lecture is on Wednesday 24 February – 5.15-6.45 in Room W2/43, Queensgate Campus, University of Huddersfield. All welcome.

See http://www2.hud.ac.uk/mhm/history/research/cricket for more details or contact Dr Davies on 01484 472405 or via p.j.davies@hud.ac.uk.