F1216 Global Sports (F1216)

Sports play a major role in contemporary society worldwide. This course will explore some of the key questions at stake in understanding the deeper issues beyond the statistics and scores, among others the dynamics of money, race, gender, sexuality, fantasy and desire, myth-making and the culture of celebrity, and commercialism and mass media. We will read a range of writings from work by anthropologists and other scholars to novelists and journalists. The class will also include a field trip to a professional calcio game.

Requirements

There will be two exams, each one covering roughly one-half of the course material. The second of these exams will be given during finals week. There will be three pop quizzes during the semester; the quizzes will be about the readings for that particular week (and with only your two highest scores counting in your final grade with the third dropped). The quizzes will be brief and not ask complicated questions, but you will not do well on them unless you have done the reading for that week in advance. Students will be part of a group that will lead discussion of sports-related topic in the news of their choice as well ass give a presentation on a research topic of their choice in the last week of class. Finally, there will be a 5-7 page paper due at the end of the semester. All films mentioned in the syllabus will be viewed in class.