25/08/2026
2026 British Society of Sport History Conference Programme
Later this week the 2026 British Society of Sport History Conference will be held at the University of Edinburgh (27th and 28th August).
The International Centre for Sports History and Culture will be fully represented at the event, with a list of papers below -
Professor Matt Taylor (ICSHC Director), ‘Another kind of fighting: Jane Couch, Autobiography and women’s boxing’.
Dr Heather Dichter, ‘Salt Lake City 1976: The effort to keep the 1976 Winter Olympics in the US’
Mike Dougherty, (ICSHC PhD student), ‘A famous victory or haphazard incident? Scotland's Robert Forbes Combe and the reporting of the 1946 British Chess Championship (Scottish Identities and Spaces)
Dr Barbara Horley (ICSHC PhD graduate), So, what can speedway teach us about gender in the interwar years and beyond? (Women as Innovators)
Emeritus Prof. Martin Polley, ‘All was as it must have been for centuries": Dover's Hill and the lost century of the Cotswold Olimpicks’
Emmy Sale (ICSHC PhD student), ‘Why then appear on the hockey field in petticoats and other unsuitable clothing?": uniform rules on early women's hockey governance, 1895-1909’
Dr Roy Thomson (ICSHC PhD graduate), ‘The saddest day of my life: sadness and the forgotten team of 11 May 1985 - the emotional impact of the Bradford City Stadium fire on Lincoln City FC’.
Dr Dave Pendleton (ICSHC PhD graduate), ‘Exile and Sport: The Hull Continental Handball League 1958 – 1963’.
Full conference programme available at this link -
https://www.sportinhistory.com/pages/2026-bssh-conference-schedule
