SOCCER AS the BEAUTIFUL GAME FOOTBALL’S ARTISTRY, IDENTITY and POLITICS Thursday-Saturday, April 10-12, 2014
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HOFSTRA CULTURAL CENTER and the HOFSTRA UNIVERSITY DEPARTMENT OF HISTORY present An International Conference SOCCER AS THE BEAUTIFUL GAME FOOTBALL’S ARTISTRY, IDENTITY AND POLITICS Thursday-Saturday, April 10-12, 2014 Distinguished Guest Speaker and Honorary Degree Recipient PELÉ in collaboration with Conference Program HOFSTRA CULTURAL CENTER and the HOFSTRA UNIVERSITY DEPARTMENT OF HISTORY present An International Conference SOCCER AS THE BEAUTIFUL GAME Football’s Artistry, Identity and Politics Stuart Rabinowitz Janis M. Meyer President and Chair, Board of Trustees Andrew M. Boas and Mark L. Claster Hofstra University Distinguished Professor of Law Hofstra University M. Patricia Adamski Herman A. Berliner Senior Vice President for Planning and Administration Provost and Senior Vice President Adolph J. and Dorothy R. Eckhardt Distinguished Professor for Academic Affairs of Corporate Law Lawrence Herbert Distinguished Professor Hofstra University Hofstra University Melissa Connolly Vice President for University Relations Hofstra University ___________ _____________________________________________________________________ CONFERENCE CO-DIRECTORS Brenda Elsey Stanislao Pugliese Associate Professor of History Professor of History and Hofstra University Queensboro UNICO Distinguished Professor of Italian Studies Hofstra University ___________ _____________________________________________________________________ CONFERENCE COORDINATORS Natalie Datlof Carol D. Mallison Athelene A. Collins Hofstra Cultural Center Hofstra Cultural Center Hofstra Cultural Center ___________ _____________________________________________________________________ CONFERENCE SECRETARY AND REGISTRATION COORDINATOR Jeannine Rinaldi Hofstra Cultural Center ___________ _____________________________________________________________________ CONFERENCE ASSISTANTS Loraine Pellegrini Amy Trotta Hofstra Cultural Center Hofstra Cultural Center ___________ _____________________________________________________________________ STUDENT ASSISTANT Isaiah Washington, Hofstra University Class of 2014 SOCCER AS THE BEAUTIFUL GAME Football’s Artistry, Identity and Politics Thursday-Saturday, April 10-12, 2014 HOFSTRA UNIVERSITY CONFERENCE SYNOPSIS Thursday: Concurrent panels, opening ceremony, keynote addresses, reception (sponsored by the Hofstra University Department of History, and the Queensboro UNICO Distinguished Professorship in Italian Studies) Friday: Concurrent panels, Pelé ceremony/conferral of Hofstra University honorary degree, reception (sponsored by the Hofstra University Office of the Provost) and gala banquet Saturday: Journalists/coaches/philanthropy round-tables, concluding plenary session, pickup game. RELATED EVENTS Sunday: Youth Soccer Clinic (for teams selected by lottery) Unveiling of commemorative plaque and New York Cosmos season opener with Pelé at James M. Shuart Stadium, South Campus For tickets and information, please visit nycosmos.com. APPEARANCES ARE SUBJECT TO THE PROFESSIONAL SCHEDULES OF CONFERENCE PARTICIPANTS. PELÉ WILL NOT BE AVAILABLE FOR AUTOGRAPHS AND PERSONAL PHOTOGRAPHS DURING HIS APPEARANCES AT HOFSTRA. 1 message from THE directorS s the world anxiously awaits the start of the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil, we warmly welcome you to Hofstra University’s conference Soccer As the Beautiful Game. After two years of preparation and with Amore than 125 players, speakers, and scholars from 20 countries, this conference is an ambitious attempt to examine the sport’s historical, cultural, social, political and economic history, impact and influence for more than a century. Beginning in England over 150 years ago, association football, commonly known as soccer in the United States, is both a global and local game. Tied to the expansion of the British Empire, soccer took root and disseminated rapidly around the world. Soccer presents a fascinating paradox, boasting deep roots in working class communities, while also generating a multibillion-dollar industry. Passion for the game connects the fields of Wembley to the mega-stadium Maracanã to the suburban fields of the United States, and makeshift lots across the globe. More than 300 million fans worldwide saw the 2012 Champions League final between Germany’s Bayern Munich and London’s Chelsea, making it a far larger event than the Super Bowl in the United States. The upcoming World Cup in Brazil anticipates a worldwide television audience of 1 billion+ people. Given its ubiquity, with possibilities to watch the game on television 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, not to mention on the small screen of everyone’s smartphone, one wonders, How can soccer be used as a prism for the interaction of globalization and the persistence of local identities and affinities? There’s no more fitting place than New York City to contemplate this question, where more than a third of residents were born abroad. Moreover, Hofstra University is situated in the dynamic suburbs, where a growing number of these newcomers will make their home. We hope this conference will provide a space for a collective reflection on questions such as: How are political relations confirmed or challenged within soccer? How has the political economy of the game changed? What is the relationship between transnational governance and local practice? What can we learn about “human nature” from a study of soccer? While both historians, we embraced this conference from two different perspectives: Brenda Elsey is a specialist on the history of Latin America and works at the intersection of politics and culture. Her critically acclaimed book, Citizens and Sportsmen: Fútbol and Politics in Twentieth Century Chile (2011), examines the role of soccer in building a vibrant civil society. More recently, her work has explored the relationship between sport, gender, and transnational solidarity. Stanislao Pugliese, a specialist on the Italian anti-fascist Resistance and Italian Jews, comes to the conference as a former player without any academic training in the sport but whose love of the game has only increased as he currently teaches a course on the subject and has learned – together with his students – about its checkered history. We hope to bridge the academic and community interests in the game, and to balance passion with critical reflection. We thank all of you for sharing your work and time to be with us. Brenda Elsey, PhD Stanislao Pugliese, PhD Conference Co-Director Conference Co-Director 2 ACKnowledgEMENTS We wish to recognize the many people and organizations that have contributed to the success of this conference. At Hofstra, we are indebted to President Stuart Rabinowitz for his support of the conference since its inception. Vice President Melissa Connolly and the Office of University Relations, including Karla Schuster and Colin Sullivan, ensured that word of the conference reached far and wide. Provost Herman A. Berliner has intellectually and financially supported the conference, as has Patrick Socci, dean of the Frank Zarb School of Business at Hofstra. Additional support has come from Bernard Firestone, dean of Hofstra College of Liberal Arts and Sciences; the Dorothy and Elmer Kirsch Endowment at Hofstra; and Warren Frisina, dean of Hofstra University Honors College. Carolyn Dudek (European Studies), Cheryl Mwaria (African Studies), Benita Sampedro (Latin American and Caribbean Studies), Karyn Valerius (Women’s Studies), and Susan Yohn (History Department) helped facilitate the attendance of a wide array of scholars from around the world. Further assistance has been provided by Lawrence Levy and Robert Brinkmann at the National Center for Suburban Studies at Hofstra University; Athletic Director Jeff Hathaway; Jay Artinian, senior associate director of athletics for facilities; Hofstra soccer coaches Richard Nuttall, Simon Riddiough, and Gary Book; the Hofstra University Bookstore and Allison DeNicola; Hofstra University Archivist Geri Solomon and the Special Collections Department of the Joan and Donald E. Axinn Library. We would like to thank the John Cranford Adams Playhouse staff, Events Management, and Michael Ogazon for organizing the honorary degree ceremony for Pelé. We appreciate Lackmann Culinary Services for creating the banquet menu and the Queensboro UNICO Distinguished Professorship in Italian Studies for its donation to Thursday evening’s reception. A special thanks is due the Hofstra Cultural Center, including Director Athelene Collins, Director Emerita Natalie Datlof, Carol Mallison, Jeannine Rinaldi, Loraine Pellegrini, Amy Trotta and Isaiah Washington. We would also like to thank Hofstra University students Shaun Foster, Lea Hinnen, Lisa Quach and Samantha Scolarici for their participation. To prospective Hofstra student Alessandro Pugliese, we offer our thanks for his work as social media and youth outreach coordinator. We are indebted to the local community for their support. Mark Samain of Petro Home Services; John Borrelli, community ambassador for Modell’s Sporting Goods; Carmine D’Orsi of Mezzacorona Winery for the donation of wine for the banquet; Yuri Fishman of the Massapequa Soccer Shop for the donation of Adidas Brazuca soccer balls for the banquet raffle; Peter Zaratin of the Long Island Rough Riders; Mike Moylan, Doug Williams and John Killian of Sports Endeavors and World Soccer Shop for the 13 posters of the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil. Finally, we appreciate the collaboration of the Consulate of Brazil in New York. A special heartfelt thanks to Elisa Coccia and the Coccia Foundation; Addie