Papers by Matthew Klugman
University of Texas Press eBooks, Dec 31, 2023
Griffith review, 2016
The beguiling promise of sport is that everyone is treated equally: that it transcends politics t... more The beguiling promise of sport is that everyone is treated equally: that it transcends politics through meritocracy. Fair play and a level playing field remain catchwords. Yet who determines whether the play is fair? Is the playing field really fair? And on whose land do the playing fields rest?
Routledge eBooks, Jun 7, 2022
… , Centre for the …, 2004
The hepatitis C epidemic among injecting drug users is continuing to grow in Australia The fi... more The hepatitis C epidemic among injecting drug users is continuing to grow in Australia The first year of injecting is a high risk time for hepatitis C transmission for young people We do not know what the experience of becoming an injecting drug user is like for novice ...
Sport History Review
It is a daunting privilege to be invited to contribute to this vital conversation. 1 I am writing... more It is a daunting privilege to be invited to contribute to this vital conversation. 1 I am writing this on the stolen Lands of the Marin-balluk clan of the Wurundjeri people of the Kulin nation. Like all the Lands that make up what is now a nation named Australia, they have never been ceded. The serious play of sport is all around me. People walk, run, and cycle on the Kororoit creek near my home, adults and kids play rugby union at the Arthur Beachley reserve across the street, and many of the television screens on show through my neighborhood broadcast the men's Australian Football League competition and the 2022 Commonwealth Games, which are taking place in Birmingham, England. Across the Pacific Ocean, the men's Major League Baseball competition continues as summer turns to fall in North America, and overnight the English "Lionesses" defeated Germany at a sold out Wembley stadium in London. After the victory, the English coach, Sarina Wiegman, proclaimed that "the world will change" for her players now that they have won the 2022 Euro. 2 Although just how much their worlds will change is unclear, the statement rings true. Such is the power of sport. The outcome of one game can transform lives. The recent compelling editorial by Carly Adams-"'Home' to Some, But Not to Others"-interrogates the academic structures that continue to enact systemic violence on those who are not privileged by Whiteness with its unequal hierarchies of gender, sexuality, class, and physical bodies among other things. 3 What I want to draw attention to here is the particularities of "modern" sport and how we tell sporting history, which I think lend a distinctive urgency to redressing these systems of discrimination, exclusion, and other forms of violence. Sport is arguably the most powerful of all the forms of popular culture in places like Australia and Canada. The extraordinary meaning that it holds for so many people is both absurd and deep. Sports are a site of dreams, desires, passions, spectacular athleticism, multibillion dollar industries, and above all, of compelling stories that unfold as we watch and play. It is these sporting stories-as lived by athletes, fans, and many others-that shape, and at times transform, lives. Yet, if we focus narrowly on these stories as sports historians, on who won and lost, of how sporting competitions were developed, and of who played in them, then we risk compounding the devastating role that sports frequently play in the world. Modern sports are the product of a world driven by ideologies of White supremacy and processes of genocidal colonization. 4 As part of this modern world, Klugman
Journal of Sport History, 2012
Feminist sports histories have sought to give voice to the experiences and subjectivities of fema... more Feminist sports histories have sought to give voice to the experiences and subjectivities of female athletes and increasingly of female sports fans. Yet the passions of female sports fans have been neglected. This paper traces the affects and subjectivities of female followers of Australian Rules football by way of in-depth interviews along with the writings of, and about, female fans. More specifically, it contrasts the relatively inclusive passions fostered by the spectator culture of Australian Rules football with the gendered limits around the possible dreams this sport provokes, before turning to the supposedly “feminine” fantasies of female fans, and concluding with a coda on the problematic intersections of football and sex. Writing the passions of female sports fans into feminist histories of sport allows for a richer understanding of the layered historical interplay of gender and sexuality with the intriguing pleasures and power at the center of popular sporting cultures.
Sport in Society, 2022
As with many other male-dominated sports, for over a century of its history, Australian Rules Foo... more As with many other male-dominated sports, for over a century of its history, Australian Rules Football organizations resisted and undermined women's participation in the game. The first league for women footballers commenced in Victoria in 1981. Since then, the growth in women's participation has been substantial, and in 2017, a professional women's Australian Football League (AFLW) commenced. The next phase of the participation of women in football is approaching, and heralds an opportunity for women to (re)gain power within the sport. In October 2019, thirty percent of women players rejected the proposed Collective Bargaining Agreement from the Australian Football League (AFL), with the underlying sentiment of wanting a stronger voice in the vision for the future of their game. This paper examines how changing participation rates in community football can transform the narrative of women's football from one of subsidized welfare to women players being necessary for the survival of football.
A1 - Authored Research Book
Altreitalie, 2014
This article considers some of the results of an oral history project conducted in Sydney, on the... more This article considers some of the results of an oral history project conducted in Sydney, on the importance of football (soccer) in migrants’ lives. Through the analysis of 32 interviews with Italians who migrated to Australia in the postwar period, and with their children, the article aims to demonstrate the importance of football in the historical study of Italian communities abroad. The article focuses in particular on those themes that are central to the memories and reflections of the interviewees. These include the importance of their football passion, the role played by soccer in processes of adaptation and integration, the construction of complex identities through football fandom and sporting activities, and the proud awareness of the contribution of Italians to the development of football in Australia.; Language: Italian; ;
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Papers by Matthew Klugman
Published the next day, the photos of Winmar’s gesture sparked an intense debate that forced the AFL, the fans and the nation to confront their prejudices head-on.
Black and Proud takes us behind the searing image to the stories of those who made it happen – the Indigenous team-mates Nicky Winmar and Gilbert McAdam and the two photographers, Wayne Ludbey and John Feder. Bound by a love of the game, the four were brought together by acts of courage and vilification that show how far we have come and just how far we have to go.
Something that produces great pain and joy and an insatiable hunger for more.
Passion Play journeys into the world of footy mania and the love and suffering at its heart. Drawing on the experiences of a diverse set of fans who’ve told their stories in interviews, books, articles, and on footy websites and blogs it follows the annual quest for the premiership in all its horror and glory.
Matthew Klugman brings footy’s seasonal rhythm of love, hope, and heartbreak to life. The hope and nerves of the pre-season, the stress of matches, the sweetness of victory and the dull ache of defeat.Then come the finals with their agonising tension and tragic losses. The ecstasy of the premiership promises to make all the pain and suffering worthwhile but there can be a danger, too, in getting your heart’s desire.
Tales of ordinary football madness sit alongside insights from the worlds of religion and psychology. Love and hate, hope and anxiety, ecstasy and agony and those moments of unbearable tension where it seems, for an instant, that nothing else matters.