PCSGSA Conference

Each year the graduate students of Physical Cultural Studies independently organize a conference designed specifically for graduate students in order to facilitate students’ presentational practices. Begun in 2008, the conference features a unique theme each year developed by the current graduate student of PCS. Additionally, each year a PCS alumnus is invited to deliver a Keynote lecture about their current line of research. Intended as a developmental forum, both masters and doctoral students are encouraged to participate and receive feedback from fellow presenters, students, and faculty. Welcomed are students’ research agendas ranging in stages from the well-developed in preparation for professional presentation to preliminary literature reviews.

The Upcoming 15th Annual PCSGSA Conference:
Nature, Nurture, (Physical) Culture

Friday, 19 April 2024: 9am-4pm (EST)

UMD School of Public Health Building, Friedgen Seminar Room (SPH 2236)

Different Forms of Bodies & Body Images: 9-10:15am 
- Muddying the Waters of Normalized Bodies: Toward a Rhizomatic Assemblage that Matters [Junbin Yang, University of Maryland]
- Inner Auntie: Nurturing Racialized Queer and Gay Men’s Bodies/Minds/Lives [Daniel Uy, University of Toronto]
- Nurturing the Nation? Measuring Efficiency, Educating Bodies [Lauren Nowosatka, University of Maryland]
- Yoga: A WeFitDC Practice to Hypertension Prevention in Washington, DC [Nyjel Green & Roger Isom, University of Maryland; Joe Houston, WeFitDC]

Keynote Address: 10:30-11:45am
- Nurturing Ourselves and Others: Creating Meaningful Lives Inside and Outside of Academia [Dr. Julie Maier, Indiana University] 

Athletes and Cultural politics: 1:15-2:30pm 
- To quit, or continue? Factors influencing women’s continued participation in ballet after age 18 [Emily Noton, University of Alberta]
- Diamonds, Rockettes, and Angels: Considering the Politics of Athletic Wear During and After the Women’s Professional Basketball League (WBL) [Dafna Kaufman, University of North Carolina]
- Observations from Sport, Race, and Grassroots Activism: A Contextual Analysis of Colin  Kaepernick's Know Your Rights Camp [Brandon Wallace, University of Maryland]
- Parental Incarceration and the Impact on Youth Sports [Sasha Tolliver, University of Maryland]

Sites & Spaces of Physical Culture and Community: 2:45-4pm 
- Reproducing neoliberal urban space: A case of three Red Bull events [Emilio Weber, University of Maryland]
- Transit Oriented Developments and Occupational Science [Shuling Wu, University of Maryland]
- Walktime Books Understanding of Edutainment: A Content Analysis of LazyTown [Roger Isom, University of Maryland]

Nature

Nurture

(Physical)

Culture

Past Conferences

  • 2023

    Disrupting Dominant Narratives of the Active Body

  • 2022

    Bridging Academic Communities for Social Justice

  • 2019

    Institutions and the Sporting Body: Power, Obligations and Contestations

  • 2018

    Confronting the Crisis: Harnessing Praxis and Combatting Complacency

  • 2017

    Redefining the Body in Physical Culture

  • 2016

    Engaging Health and Physical Culture: Power, Politics and Possibilities

  • 2015

    Bodies, Science, and Technology

  • 2014

    Epistemological Chasms: Seeking Methods for a Socially (In)Just World

  • 2013

    Through the Looking Glass: Regulating the (In)Active Body

  • 2012

    Bodies from Below

  • 2011

    Bodies of Knowledge

  • 2010

    “Weighing In” on Public Health: Physical Activity and the (Un)Healthy Body

  • 2009

    The Body, Health and Society