CfP: Tennis between high culture and popular culture (08.-10.05.2026, Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz) Deadline: 05.01.2026
Tennis between high culture and popular culture. Sports performances between theatricality and politics
Date of the conference: Mai 8.-10., 2026
Deadline of proposal: 05.01.2026
Institut für Film-, Theater-, Medien- und Kulturwissenschaft,
Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz
The tradition of tennis as ball sport can be traced back to French monasteries in the Middle Ages. Tennis was never only a pastime sport but also constructed social distinctions and societal classifications by way of leisure activity. As a means of connecting sports, politics, and theater it can be dated back to the construction of ball houses. Primarily built for playing tennis, Jeu de Paume, for example, became a synonym for the historical course of the French Revolution through the Tennis Court Oath in 1789. Often converted into theaters, ball houses were also used from the 19th century onwards to refer to dance halls or dance venues.
The symposium planned to take place May 8-10, 2026, aims to examine these historical and contemporary connections between tennis, politics, and theatrical phenomena.
Tennis as an individual sport brings the image construction of professional athletes into focus, with marketing on Instagram becoming increasingly important. This symposium will focus on staging strategies from tennis stars on social media and the connections between music and fashion in this field. Serena Williams performing the Crip Walk alongside Kendrick Lamar at the Super Bowl Halftime Show 2025, reflects a complex cultural history. The aim will be to analyze the history of tennis legends like Althea Gibson, Suzanne Lenglen or Williams, to convey information about relevant discourses in society.
In that matter the collaboration between professional tennis players and fashion designers receive importance in cultural-history and socio-critical perspectives. What’s the role of women's tennis fashion in feminist fashion history? To what extent did tennis player René Lacoste create a luxury fashion with the polo shirt, deliberately targeting high-income social classes? And how is this being challenged today by rap music, songs like Gauner in Lacoste by rapper Luciano or the French rap group Ärsenik?
The function of tennis in pop music videos, as in Martin Solveig and Dragonette's song Hello (2010), or in advertising videos like Andre Agassi's Nike Rock 'N' Roll Tennis (1991) will be analyzed.
In tennis high culture is constructed through the strict regulation of tennis rules as well as dress codes. Can this be equated with the bourgeois identity construction in the concert hall of classical music? How and for what purpose is tennis represented in the arts, considering e.g. in the field of theater William Shakespeare’s Henry V (1599), in the field of painting George Goodwin Kilburne’s A Game of Tennis (1882), in the field of ballet Debussy’s Jeux (1912), in the field of poetry John Ashbery’s The Tennis Court Oath (1957), or in the field of artistic avant-garde Robert Rauschenberg’s Open Score (1966)?
The theatrical elements tennis tournaments use to generate social relevance before, during and after the show, can include political motivation e.g. in the staging of the Six Kings Slam, which was held for the first time in 2024. Which target audience was aimed at in the promotional video for the 2024 Six Kings, One Throne, and what motivated its similarity to the series Game of Thrones? How does the multimedia show of the 2025 tournament cater to a pop-cultural audience? In what way are national or elite identities constructed through tennis events, and what do names of stadiums or events like Roland Garros or the Davis Cup signify in that matter?
This symposium discusses the potential of individual sports in relation to our understanding of democracy. To what extent does tennis represent ideals of equality and inclusion? What insights regarding autonomy can an analysis of wheelchair tennis within a theatrical and performative framework provide? What are the societal impacts of a performance by tennis Olympic champion Novak Djoković in a wheelchair tennis match?
Finally, it is important to examine economic opportunities offered by marketing tennis in combination with music and art.
The symposium is aimed at scholars from various disciplines, music, theater, dance, and media studies, sports science, sports economics, sports management, political science, cultural anthropology, etc. Proposals are for 20 minutes presentation. A tennis-related accompanying program is planned. Please send an abstract of approximately 250 words and a short biography of 120 words by January 5, 2026, to cfpetry[at]uni-mainz[dot]de
Organization: Dr. Clara-Franziska Petry (Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz)