CULTURESOF BASKETBALL

Cultures
BASKETBALL
OF
CONFERENCE
NOVEMBER 22-23, 2013
HUMBOLDT UNIVERSITY BERLIN, LUISENSTR. 56, FESTSAAL
The conference “Cultures of Basketball“ addresses
basketball as a cultural practice and an important
point of reference in a host of debates concerning
‚race‘ and gender, constructions of local as well as
national identities, the body, urban space, performativity, creativity and commerce. It locates
North American discussions of the sport, which
tend to focus on black masculinities, in a transnational context, highlighting the interrelations
between US American and European basketball in
particular.
Conference Organizers: Eva Boesenberg (HU Berlin) /
Anke Ortlepp (LMU Munich) / Christoph Ribbat (University of Paderborn)
Conference Funding: DFG Graduate School
“Automatismen” (University of Paderborn), Humboldt University (Berlin), LMU (Munich), DGfA (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Amerikastudien), Du Bois
Institute Harvard, US Embassy Berlin.
Special Thanks to
Sigrid VenuSS
Jochen Kuhlmann
Katja Linke
Claire Simon
Felix Wehinger
Adil Yilmaz
Pawel Zoneff
Poster Design: Lavender Wolf
FRIDAY
22.11.2013
2:30 P.M. Welcome / Opening Remarks: Eva Boesenberg
(HU Berlin) / Anke Ortlepp (LMU Munich) / Christoph
Ribbat (University of Paderborn)
6:00 p.m. Coffee Break
3:00 p.m. Session I: Approaching Basketball
6:30 Keynote Lecture
Valerie Babb (University of Georgia)
The King and His Court: LeBron James, the NEW Othello
Nicole Waller (University of Potsdam)
PANEL chair
Scott Brooks (University of Missouri)
City of Basketball Love: Philadelphia and the Nurturing of Black Males‘ Hoop Dreams
Desmond Miller (York University, Toronto)
The Post-Game: Retrospectives of thE Experiences of Canadian Black Student Athletes on US Athletic Scholarships
Alexander Starre (FU Berlin)
The Well-Made Play: Experimental Design and the Aesthetics of Improbability in American
Basketball
4:30 p.m. Coffee Break
5:00 p.m. Session II: Signifying Bodies
Alexander Dunst (University OF Paderborn)
Panel CHAIR
Christian Orban (University of Erfurt)
Sporting Bodies at Historic InterseCtions: African American Female Basketball Players in Jim and Jane Crow America
Silke Hackenesch (LMU Munich)
Black Hairstyles as Signifiers for Race, Class and Sexuality in US Basketball Culture
p.m.
INTRODUCTION: Martin Klepper (HU BERLIN)
8:30 p.m. Conference Dinner
10:45 a.m. Session IV: The Global Game
Martin Heger (Humboldt University Berlin)
Panel Chair
Albrecht Cordes (University of Frankfurt)
“Deutsch-amerikanische
Freundschaft“: The Foundation and the Early Days of the Albert
Schweitzer Tournament in
Mannheim
Martin Lüthe (FU Berlin)
“MJ, 23 Ways to Make You Pay“: The NBA in the 1990s and the
Globalization of Consuming
Basketball
11:45 a.m. Break
SATURDAY
23.11.2013
12:00 a.m. Roundtable Discussion: Hoop Roots in
Germany: Henning Harnisch (ALBA Berlin) / Marvin
Willoughby (Sport ohne Grenzen, Hamburg) / Wilbert L. Olinde (Hamburg) / Heike Peters (TSV Bayer 04
Leverkusen) Moderator: Eva Boesenberg
1:30 p.m. Lunch Break
9.30 a.m. Session III: Ball Possession
Kirsten Twelbeck (University of Hannover)
PANEL CHAIR
3:00 p.m. Reading by Thomas Pletzinger (Author/Novelist, Berlin) “Gentlemen, wir leben am Abgrund“
Richard King (Washington State University)
Owning the Game: American Indians, Cultural Sovereignty, and
Basketball
4:30 p.m. Coffee Break
Seulghee Lee (University of California, Berkeley)
From Melancholia to Linsanity:
Basketball, Affect, and Racial
Ontology
10:30 a.m. Coffee Break
Introduction: Christoph Ribbat
5:00 p.m. Film Screening and Discussion with Director
Katharina Weingartner (Vienna) “Sneaker Stories“ Introduction: Anke Ortlepp
7:00 p.m. Closing Remarks