For a printable registration form, click here. For further information please email emma.griffin@ucl.ac.uk
Convenors: Dr Vivienne Lo, Wellcome Trust Centre for History of Medicine at UCL,
Professor Adrian Renton, Director of Institute for Health and Human Development, University of East London
Advisory Committee: Professor Susan Brownell, Kim Lavely, Jane Portal, Professor Jessica Rawson, Dr Jan Stuart and Professor Susan Dilly
Convened prior to the Beijing Olympics, this interdisciplinary conference explores how critical appraisal of the history of sports, body cultivation and sports medicine can contribute to our shared experience of health today.
Historians, medics and sociologists will speak to three prinicipal domains: the health equation of games past and future, the perfection and healing of body and soul, and the delivery of future legacies positive in cultural regeneration, societal cohesion, health and well-being.
Ancient regimen and techniques may seem remote, yet the practices often attempt to resolve issues that are common to us all. Some are directed at the immortality or longevity of the physical body, and include performance-enhancing nutrition and drug taking, others train the spirit and souls for the afterlife. Many emphasise the interconnectedness of the human body with its environment.
Speakers will be asked to set their topic in its broad socio-political and cultural context to facilitate a dialogue with those who will address similar questions for the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. The conference will provide text and illustrations for a variety of print and online publications associated with on going projects in the run up to the London Olympics.
Day 1 will be held at The British Museum where the theme will be longevity and immortality in the ancient worlds and afterworlds. Setting the cultural and historical scene for the upcoming Beijing Olympics, the First Emperor exhibition then open at the British Museum provides the perfect setting to focus on Qin and Han China. There will be comparative treatments from the Museum's Greco-Roman departments and invited specialists on ancient world sports medicine and sporting traditions. Core to the discussants agenda will be, how do different sporting and exercise traditions become appropriate to changing bodies/populations?
Opening Address:
Dr Jan Stuart, Keeper of Asia, The British Museum
Immortality
Chair: Donald Harper
Michael Loewe Perfecting Body and Soul in Pre-Buddhist China
Livia Kohn Daoyin among the Daoists: Physical Practice and Immortal Transformation in Highest Clarity
Meir Shahar The Diamond Body: The Origins of Invulnerability in the Chinese Martial Arts
David White The End of Yogis
Sports
Chair: Susan Brownell
Roel Stercx Gaming, Animals and Sport in Traditional China
Hans Ulhrich Vogel ' Homo ludens sinensis': Kickball in Ancient China
Ian Jenkins Athletic and Other Human Bodies in Ancient China
Mark Lewis Swordsmanship and the Socialisation of Violence in Early China
Jim Mills Women's War and Sport in South Asia: The case of Manipur's footballers
Drugs, Doping & Medicine
Chair: Jim Mills
Donald Harper Drugs to Strengthen the Body and Enhance Performance in Early China: Evidence from Second Century BCE Manuscripts
Jeffrey Reigel Curing the 'Incurable' - A Discussion of Ancient Chinese Approaches to the Illnesses of the Elite Found in the Zuozhuan and the Zhangjiashan Manuscript Entitled "Yinshu"
Judith Swaddling, Adrian Harrison & Caroline Cartwright Olympic Victors' Dark Ointment
Paul Dimeo The History of Anti-Doping at the Olympics, 1960-1976
Keynote Address - Lifestyles in Context: Local Engagement with Health and Wellbeing
Karen Lock Neighbourhood determinants of physical activity and health: cultural, social and historical perspectives
Day 2 Hosted by the World's first department of sport medicine and in the heart of East London Day 2 will feature speakers who will explore the modernization of ancient sporting and body cultivation traditions as well as the all-important links between the cultural, regeneration, health and well-being domains of the legacy of the London Olympics in 2012. In advance of the games it is intended that such analysis be designed to enhance health promotion programmes and broader regeneration design.
Fitness and Beauty
Chair: Angela McRobbie
Vivienne Lo Animating the Body: Sense and Sensuality in Early China
Zhou Xun Fitness and Modernity in 20 th -century China
Elizabeth de Michelis (for Mark Singleton) The Medium and the Message: Visual Reproduction and the Yogasana (Yoga Posture) Revival
Women & Youth
Chair: Adrian Renton
Fan Hong, Huan Xiong Urbanisation and Stratification of Women's Sport in China
Zoe Hudson Physical activity in children and the future health of the nation
Mark Harrod Sport and the Flourishing of Young People
Angela McRobbie Young Women's Disorders, the Media and the Edge of 'Mortality'
'Olympic Visions'
Chair: Zoe Hudson
Susan Brownell Beijing 2008: "Combination of East and West" or Clash of Body Cultures?
Vanessa Heggie Volunteers for Science: A Medical History of the Modern Olympic Games
Matt Delaney East London: The Legacy of the Olympics
Keynote Address - Art's Place in the Contemporary 'Mix'
Moira Sinclair Role of the Arts and Creative Industries in Promoting Healthy Lifestyles in Culturally Diverse Settings
Roundtable - An Integrated Approach to London 2012
Chair: Adrian Renton
Peter Hamlyn, Past Director of Sports Medicine, Queen Mary, University of London
Kim Lavely, Chief Executive of the Prince of Wales' Foundation for Integrated Health
Matt Delaney, Greenwich 2012 Unit (Chief Officer), Head of Sport Legacy
and Moira Sinclair, Director London (Development), Arts Council England
Other participants to be confirmed.
NB. Programme is subject to change (this information already superseding that contained in the registration form).
© 2008
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