SPRM3308

This course is a systematic and critical study of the complex and paradoxical role of organized sports in our society. It will examine the dynamics of how sports reflect, reproduce, and transform cultural values, meanings, and ideologies in sports, as well as the relationships between sports and other aspects critical of social life, such as race, gender, education, inequality, media, and socialization. Also, the course will consider the positive and negative impacts of sports on society, from their capacity to bring us together, break down barriers, and showcase the best of the human spirit, to how, simultaneously, they have the capacity to tear us apart, facilitate damaging stereotypes, and normalize exploitation.