Biography
Dr Patrick Clastres is a political and cultural historian involved in sports history and geopolitics. Since 2015, he’s served as Professor of Sports History in the Faculty of Social and Political Sciences (ISSUL) at Lausanne University,Switzerland, where he coordinates the independent Global Sport & Olympic Studies Center (CEOGS).
The Global Sport & Olympic Center’s academic activities are primarily concerned with play culture, sport, and olympics at different scales, varying from local to global. The longue durée historical approach – the core aspect of this academic project – is conceived as a dialogue with not only sport history, but all social sciences. The Center’s monthly workshop is open to every student and scholar from UNIL, Swiss universities, and from all over the world.
Dr Clastres’ research focuses on the history and geopolitics of international sport, more specifically on the ruling elites of international sports federations and the International Olympic Committee (IOC), as well as the genesis and diffusion of sports cultures in the world. More generally, he is interested in the concepts of neutrality and apoliticism, the epistemology of history, and the relationship between literary genre and biographical essay.
Dr Clastres has published or co-edited 10 books and more than 50 peer-reviewed articles.
Keynote Presentation (2024) | Olympism and International Relations from Pierre de Coubertin to the Present Day
