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The Association for the Study of Play |
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History of TASP In Minneapolis, Minnesota on April 14, 1973 Alyce Taylor Cheska organized and chaired a meeting of over thirty scholars who were identified as publishing research within the general rubric of play, and with this critical mass of interested sc h olars the Cultural Anthropology of Play Reprint Society was born. Michael Salter organized what is considered the first official meeting of the new organization in London, Ontario in 1974. Playful academic folks who wanted to or were studying and writing of play got together and they called the group The Association for the Anthropological Study of Play (TAASP). The first election of officers came that year and B. Allan Tindall became the first president of the organization. In 1987 the organization changed its name to The Association for the Study of Play and TASP continues to grow strong. Every year the group has an annual meeting. Meeting sites have been throughout North American and Europe including Paris and Salzburg. From the early years of TASP, p ublished proceedings of the annual meetings were produced. Beginning in 1988 annual publications replaced the proceedings. In addition over the years TASP has produced several journals including Play & Culture, Journal of Play Theory & Research and curren tly Play & Culture Studies. Presidents of TASP have been play scholars, leaders, academicians and above all great people. Play is meaningful for each of them, and embodies their personal and academic experiences in ways too numerous and varied to describe. |
