XClose

UCL Institute of the Americas

Home
Menu

Maradona: Global Icon

10 December 2020, 5:30 pm–7:00 pm

Diego Armando Maradona

Diego Armando Maradona (1960-2020) was one of the best football players in the world and one the most popular icons of contemporary history.

This event is free.

Event Information

Open to

All

Availability

Sold out

Cost

Free

Organiser

UCL Institute of the Americas

As a football player, Diego Maradona was revered from Buenos Aires to Naples. Born in a slum, his story of success and loyalty to his family made him the subject of popular devotion. A contradictory character, he became a paradox of Latin American popular culture. An icon of the Left, and a symbol of anti-colonialism, he lived a life of capitalist excess while becoming a hero to the poor. To assess his impact on world football, his iconicity, and his likely cultural legacies, UCL Institute of the Americas brings together specialists on the history of Latin American sport and popular culture to discuss Maradona in and beyond football.

Speakers:

Brenda J. Elsey is Professor of History at Hofstra University. She is the author of Citizens and Sportsmen: Fútbol and Politics in Twentieth Century Chile (2011) and co-author of Futbolera: A History of Women and Sports in Latin America (2019). Her new book, Losing to Win: The Joy, Agony, and Politics of Sport in Latin America, is forthcoming from UNC Press.

Matthew Brown is Professor in Latin American History, University of Bristol. He is author of From Frontiers to Football: An Alternative History of Latin America since 1800 (2014), and co-editor of Connections after Colonialism: Europe and Latin America in the 1820s (2013).

Ernesto Semán is an Associate Professor in the Department of Foreign Languages at the University of Bergen, he is the author of Ambassadors of the Working Class: Argentina's International Labor Activists and Cold War Democracy in the Americas (2017).

All are welcome to this free event, which will be held via Zoom. Please register your attendance via Eventbrite to receive the joining link.

YouTube Widget Placeholderhttps://youtu.be/vYTeZd2QQvI

 

SoundCloud Widget Placeholderhttps://soundcloud.com/ucl-arts-social-science/maradona-global-icon?utm_...

 

Links:

Professor Brenda J. Elsey - academic profile

Professor Matthew Brown - academic profile

Dr Ernesto Semán - academic profile

Image:

© Archivo General de la Nación - República Argentina