Kevin Blackistone to speak and Sport and Society Conference hosted by St. Norbert College and the Green Bay Packers

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From St. Norbert College, January 5, 2010
by Mike Counter, mike.counter@snc.edu, (920) 403-3089

Kevin Blackistone, national columnist for AOL FanHouse and panelist on ESPN's "Around the Horn," will speak at the academic conference "A Mirror of our Culture: Sport and Society in America." This national conference will be hosted by St. Norbert College and the Green Bay Packers May 26-28, 2010.

Blackistone will join former National Football League commissioner Paul Tagliabue, sports, media and entertainment mogul Carl Vogel and Boise State University President Robert Kustra as one of the featured speakers at the conference.

Blackistone's address, "Sports and Race," is scheduled for Friday, May 28, at 8:30 a.m. in the Walter Theatre in the Abbot Pennings Hall of Fine Arts at St. Norbert College.

The Shirley Povich Chair in Sports Journalism at the University of Maryland, Blackistone is a former award-winning sports columnist for The Dallas Morning News. He has covered the Summer Olympics, Super Bowl, Wimbledon, the World Cup, the Tour de France, the British Open, the NBA Finals, the Final Four, the national college football championship, NFL playoffs, Major League Baseball playoffs, world championship boxing matches and other events more than once. He is an occasional contributor to National Public Radio's "All Things Considered" and co-author of "A Gift for Ron," a memoir by former NFL star Everson Walls published in November 2009 about his kidney donation to one-time teammate Ron Springs.

Formal conference registration will open on Feb. 1, 2010, and close on April 1, 2010. St. Norbert College will be publishing the proceedings following the conference.

A limited number of paper/presentation slots remain open for this national conference.

Academics considering a session will need to send in their abstracts right away. Go to http://www.snc.edu/sportandsociety/secure/submitpaper.html to submit, and http://www.snc.edu/sportandsociety/schedule.html to view the preliminary program.

The conference will include an exhibit of sports photography and a film festival. The exhibit will be curated, but Best of Show awards will be given. Photographic submissions are due by April 1, 2010.
Sports videos or films can be submitted for the film festival. Film submissions are due March 1, 2010. Film award winners will be notified by May 3, 2010.
For information on conference fees, or to learn how to submit an abstract, film/video, or photography submission, go to http://www.snc.edu/sportandsociety.

This first-of-its-kind partnership between an NFL team and an institution of higher education will bring together academics and business professionals from around the country. The conference will also feature an exhibit area for publishers, a gallery exhibition and a film festival. You can also contact Karen Cleereman, conference administrative coordinator, at sportandsociety@snc.edu or (920) 403-3777, for more information.