Call for Papers
The Stoke Sessions: A Conference on the Culture, History and Politics of Skateboarding
and Surfing
April 20-23, 2023, San Diego State University
Featured keynote speakers: Tony and Steve Hawk, Dian Hadiani, and Selema Masekela
Scholars from all backgrounds and disciplines – including but not limited to the humanities,
social sciences,
sports studies, Indigenous studies, cultural studies, ethnic studies, etc. - are invited
to join us in a comprehensive
examination of surfing and skateboarding. We also welcome graduate and undergraduate
students, writers,
journalists, artists, community activists, professional as well as casual surfers
and skateboarders to join us in a
celebration of, and critical reflection upon, the culture, history and politics of
surfing and skateboarding and their various progeny like snowboarding, windsurfing,
etc.
Topics for consideration include, but are not limited to:
- The History of the Relationship between Surfing and Skateboarding
- The Cultural Politics of Surfing and/or Skateboarding
- Sport or Lifestyle?
- The Question of Skateboarding and Surfing in the Olympics
- The Political Economy of Surfing and/or Skateboarding
- Constructing and Deconstructing Identities: Race, Class and Gender in Surfing and/or Skateboarding
- Embodiment in Roll and Flow: The Experience/Phenomenology of Surfing and/or Skateboarding
- The Production of Social Space in Skateboarding Cultures
- Surfing and/or Skateboarding Sexualities
- Sustainability, Environmentalism, and Coastal Access and Protection
- Ecologically Friendly Product Development and Manufacturing
Other topics include, but are not limited to the following:
- Skateboarding/Surfing and Black Lives Matter
- Indigeneity in Surfing and Skateboarding
- BIPOC Participation in Board Sports
- Adaptive Surfing and Skating
- Surf Tourism
- Skateboarding and the Urban Form
- Surfing and the Labor/Leisure Question
- Resistance to the Criminalization of Skateboarding
- Skate Plazas and Wave Pools
- Nature, the Sublime and Surfing
- Skateboarding and Anti-/Gentrification
- Surfing and Anti-/Colonialism
- Skateboarding and/or Surfing in Popular Culture
- Surfing and/or Skateboarding on Film
- Surfing and/or Skateboarding in Music
- Impact of Technology on Board Sports
- Surfing in Borderlands
- Liminal Spaces: The Cultural/Political Dynamics Inside the Surf Zone Along the Mexico-US Border
If you are interested in presenting a paper, a poster, an art project or organizing
a panel, please submit a 300-word
abstract by February 16, 2023. For panels, please also include a title for the panel and list of panelists.
The submission form is now closed.
Select papers and artifacts (paintings, photos, etc.) will be given consideration
for publication in the
inaugural issue of the new journal, Board Cultures: The International Journal of Surfing and Skateboarding
Studies.
Please email [email protected] with any quesitons.