This is a past event.

Join us on Friday, November 7 from 1-2 in the Petersen Library for the rescheduled talk with visiting speaker Daniel Noemi Voionmaa, "In Praise of Football: Poetics, Aesthetics, Politics, & Identities of the Ball"!

Abstract:

Not a long time ago, in 1930, Argentina played its first final. The Estadio Centenario was packed; perhaps a few thousand listened to it on the radio (we don’t have the exact numbers), nobody watched it on TV.  Many things have changed in football (soccer) since that evening in Montevideo, in 1930, no doubt. But, also, many things remain the same. Like in life –a comparison many times drawn— football can be thought of and analyzed from many points of view: tactics and strategies on the field, attitudes of fans in the stands, the politics it involves, and a myriad of cultural and artistic artifacts and productions. Football is a mirror of our societies, but also a mask that covers and hides who we are and who we want to be. 

I will attempt to show how football works as a mirror and mask, and how it has produced an artistic and poetic corpus that, perhaps, is as attractive as the beautiful game itself.

Daniel Noemi Voionmaa is Professor of Cultures, Societies and Global Studies at Northeastern University. His research and teaching focuses on the intersection of critical theory and literature, and on visual arts, film, and politics. He is the author of four books and many articles.