SSPEL Newsletter: Research and Scholarly Activities

Monday, December 12, 2005

Mike Tripp told a small but enthusiastic audience about the work he has been doing for a number of years on the history of Cornish wrestling. He has collected a substantial archive on the sport, mostly from analysing local newspaper reports. The result has been a substantial cross-referenced database which will be of some value both to historians of sport and to those interested in the development of Cornishness. Mike has a great deal of expertise in the analysis of local newspapers which he is willing to share with anyone who has a similar project.

The database itself looks as if it has the potential to generate a number of subsequent publications, but Mike is also intending to use it as a source of empirical data with which to test a number of dominant theories in the history of sport and modernity. This particular project is the substance of his PhD. One of these theories seems particularly fruitful -- a centre-periphery model of Cornishness -- which happens to be the theme for the international conference to be held next year (announced a few items ago in this Newsletter).

Overall, the project seems to promise to generate a substantial research programme, with a number of publishable outputs. There is clearly considerable scope for links with scholars in other fields and in other institutions.

Dave Harris