Hello Sport, Leisure and the Body Division members! I hope you are all having a restful and relaxing summer.  In preparation for the SSSP meetings next week, this email includes information on SLB sponsored sessions, our division meeting and preparations for next year’s conference. Welcome to our new division chair: First, please join me in welcoming our incoming Division Chair (2013-2015), Beth Cavalier!   Division-Sponsored Sessions: The Preliminary Program is available online.  We have two exciting Division-sponsored sessions at this year’s conference! Your attendance and participation at the Division-sponsored conference sessions is important to building and sustaining the Division, so please mark your calendars:            Session 77: Saturday August 10, 12:30- 2:10pm Gender, Sexuality and Sport. Room: New Amsterdam          Session 95: Saturday August 10, 4:30- 6:10pm Youth Sports. Room: New Amsterdam Division Student-Paper Award Winners: The division’s student paper award winners Lisa-Jo van den Scott, Clare Forstie and Savina Balasubramanian, Northwestern University, will present their award-winning paper, “Shining Stars, Blind Sides, and ‘Real’ Realities: Exit Rituals, Eulogy Work and Allegories in Reality Television,” in Session 25 on Friday August 9, at 12:30pm-2:10pm Room: Palace. Division-Sponsored Reception: Please join us at the Division’s joint reception on Friday, August 9 from 6:30pm-7:30pm (location: Broadway Foyer). Division Business Meeting/ Call for Sessions for SSSP 2014: We will be constructing and finalizing the Sport, Leisure and the Body’s Division’s Session Line Up for 2014 (as well as discussing other Division agenda items) next week at our business meeting on Saturday August 10, 2013 from 12:30-2:10pm in Gershwin II. I encourage all members to attend.  During this meeting, we organize sessions for next year’s conference, determine session themes, assign moderators- so if you’ve been wanting to get more involved in the division, this is a great opportunity to do so. The theme of the 2014 meetings is:  “Fifty Years Later:  From a War on Poverty to a War on the Poor.”  Our division can propose a maximum of three division sessions—it is expected that one of these sessions be on a topic that is directly related to the program theme.  Also, we are expected to offer the relatively new session format, CRITICAL DIALOGUES (this format includes short (5 minute presentations) by about 8 authors followed by an engaged dialogue that critically explores connections among the presentations. The organizer/presider of a Critical Dialogue session serves as moderator and facilitator of the dialogue while ensuring that presentation times are respected). I’m hoping you will be thinking about sessions that you would like to propose and EMAIL ME YOUR IDEAS (Title of Session, Format of Session) BEFORE the business meeting next week.  That way we will be able to submit the SLB’s Division’s proposed session during the division chairs meetings. Thanks in advance for your participation in the Division.  See you in NYC! Best, Cheryl -- Cheryl Cooky, Ph. D. Associate Professor Women’s, Gender & Sexuality Studies Program and Department of Health & Kinesiology Courtesy Faculty, Department of Sociology Affiliated Faculty, American Studies Purdue University 800 W. Stadium Ave. West Lafayette, IN 47907-2046 (765) 494-2503 Campus office: 114 LAMB