Keynote Speakers

Anke Hilbrenner

Professor for East European history at the Heinrich Heine University of Düsseldorf, Germany

She specializes in the history of violence and terror, World War II, Gender, Jewish history and (of course) sport. Among her related publications are an edited volume on "Discipline, Violence and Leisure: Sport in Penal and Internment Camps" as well as the digital "Handbuch der Sportgeschichte Osteuropas". Her most recent project is a source edition on Jewish sport history, coming up with the "Enzyklopädie jüdischer Kulturen" in 2024.

Mike Huggins

Emeritus Professor of Cultural History, University of Cumbria

His main research interests, expertise and experience lie in the history of British sport, leisure and popular culture in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, and the opening up of a wider range of evidence for their study, including visual and material primary sources. Alongside his many books, chapters and articles on British sport history, his edited collections have covered wider topics such as match fixing and sport, the visual in sport, a cultural history of sport in the age of industry, or sport and tourism. His contributions to the scientific study of sports' history have been recognised by the International Society for Sport History and Physical Education, the British Society for Sports History, and the North American Society for Sport History.

Fiona Skillen

Senior Lecturer in History at Glasgow Caledonian University, Scotland

Her research interests concern aspects of sport, gender and popular culture during the 19th and twentieth centuries in Britain. She is particularly interested in women’s sport during this period and has published extensively in this area. She has also worked on projects concerning the Commonwealth Games in Scotland, sporting heritage and most recently as PI on a large EU-funded project VolPower, which explored the uses of sport and arts volunteering in inculcating a sense of belonging amongst immigrants and their new communities. Fiona Skillen regularly contributes to radio and television programmes on the history of sport. She is a former Chair of British Society of Sport History, a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society, a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and an editor of the International Journal of the History of Sport.