News archive
December 2011
Organised the 'Sport and the Big Society' one-day symposium at the University of Brighton.
Delivered a talk on the Victorian climbing hero at Bexhill Museum.
November 2011
Spoke on parkour at 'Sport cultures: capturing sports in a globalised world' ESRC Festival of Social Sciences event, on the 5 November, organised by the Royal Anthropological Institute, at the University of Sussex.
Completed a short history about the petition against St Leonards and Hastings greyhound racing stadium.
Review of Simon Thompson's Unjustifiable Risk? The Story of British Climbing is published in Sport in History.
October 2011
Made a presentation to the School of Environment and Technology research seminar series on 'Space hijacking and the anarcho-politics of property rights'.
Completed further biographies for Bexhill Museum's Sporting Heritage exhibition.
September 2011
Seconded 0.4 to work in the School of Environment and Technology at the University of Brighton to develop research into leisure and the environment.
Given the go-ahead by the Leisure Studies Association to produce an edited volume (co-edited with Dan Burdsey and Thomas Carter) on Coastal Cultures.
Visited an AHRC Connected Communities project in Manchester which is doing good stuff on food growing, young people and creative production.
Delivered a talk on the climbing history of Beachy Head to the British Society of Sport History annual conference, 3 September, at London Metropolitan University. This was part of a panel I organised on 'climbing histories and geographies' - also featuring Jonathan Westaway and Ben Anderson.
Working on developing an exhibition on sporting heritage with volunteers at Bexhill Museum. The exhibition is due to open on 7 February 2012 and will run all year.
The book version of the special issue of Sport in Society on 'The politics of sport: community, mobility, identity' is released. See Taylor & Francis website for purchasing options.
July 2011
Presented 'Space hijacking and the anarcho-politics of leisure' at the Leisure Studies Association annual conference, Southampton Solent University. The political theme was a fortuitously strong element of the conference, with Barrie Houlihan, Cara Aitchinson and Chris Rojek arguing for more political studies and engagement with the political in their keynote lectures.
Research trip to Coatbridge parkour park, near Glasgow.
June 2011
Putting together a research proposal on the transnational dimensions of parkour to continue some comparative research in this area.
Undertaken trips to Preston and Rugby to view new parkour facilities.
May 2011
Completed a short biography of Robert Gilchrist - Bard of Tyneside
A new section on the website has been created to gather my work related to 'coastal cultures'
A draft of my Beachy Head article is now complete. This is a word infographic for it created via Wordle http://www.wordle.net/show/wrdl/3545468/Beachy_Head
April 2011
Attended the Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis workshop at Birkbeck College, University of London.
New article co-written with Belinda Wheaton is published in International Journal of Sport Policy and Politics on ‘Lifestyle sport, public policy and youth engagement: examining the emergence of parkour’.
Unfortunately I was not successful in the UoB's research poster competition...but got some nice compliments from colleagues at the event. Happily, my PhD student Elena Matzaridou walked away with the top prize in the student category. Well done! Check out the winning entries.
March 2011
New Twitter page www.twitter.com/paulgilchrist
Funding success! The Political Studies Association have granted £1,350 through their Specialist Activities Competition to host a workshop on 'Sport and the Big Society: Active Citizens and Post-Welfare Governmentalities'. The workshop will be in November at the University of Brighton.
February 2011
Marking time! Plenty of assessments to mark from the research methods modules.
The special issue of Sport in Society I co-edited is now released. The theme is The Politics of Sport: Community, Mobility and Identity. This features papers taken from the Political Studies Association's Sport and Politics Group inaugural conference.
My presentation calendar is filling up (slightly), with an appearance at the Leisure Studies Association annual conference in July to give a paper on 'Space hijacking and the anarcho-politics of leisure', which follows my interests in micro-politics, space and protest formations.
The research poster for the parkour project is now finished and has been entered into the University of Brighton's research poster competition. Fingers crossed!
January 2011
Working on a few of articles that explore different aspects of cultural geography - one on the creative class, liminality and place; another on the regulation and governance of parkour in the UK; and a more historical article on the development of climbing at Beachy Head.
Looking forward to the PSA Sport and Politics group's 5th annual conference at the University of Birmingham on 18 March 2011, which has the timely theme of sport in an age of austerity.