| Many people around the world, including many Duke students, have very strong feelings about sports. This class will begin by asking the question, "What are sports? How do we define sports in U.S. society and around the world? What counts as a 'real' sport?" We will also investigate the mythologies perpetuated through sports, including the American Dream, meritocracy, integration, multiculturalism, spirituality, superstition, and statistics. This course will investigate the cultural role of sports in society. In particular, we will investigate how sports operates within a field of racial, sexual, gender, and class differences: "Do sports operate to reproduce these differences? Can sports work to change some of our understandings of these differences?" The class will conclude with a segment on globalization and sports, and will investigate how sports are being reframed within an era of globalization. We will also investigate how mass media, including satellite television and new media technologies (Internet, PDAs, and cell phones) shape new experiences and understandings of sports in a global society. |
