How and when did play become such a serious, high-stakes endeavor? How does being a fan at a ball game collapse economic-class distinctions? How are masculinity and femininity constructed through sport? Whose fantasy gets played out in fantasy sports and what are the implications?听 Is the dominance of the NFL at stake as the CTE crisis becomes obvious?听 How do war metaphors shape the way we perceive different sports and their cultural value?听 What can we learn about larger social relations from studying sport? Thinking critically about sport as a social institution, our readings and discussions will explore the intersections of power, gender/sexuality, race and ethnicity, class and national identity. 听The goal of the course is to facilitate critical thinking about sport as a site of cultural production.听 Students will be prompted to make connections between the discourses of sport and other arenas of public life as well as their own life experiences.
Learning Objectives听
- Identify the elements of sport that parallel religion;
- Explain the value of understanding sport as a microcosm of society;
- Apply sport-related concepts to other political and professional contexts;
- Examine the sports metaphors in our language and evaluate their implications;
- Apply critical thinking about sport in the creation of your own commentary.
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