GEOG 284 - Sports Geography

The goal of this course is to examine the role of sports in society, taking a critical, interdisciplinary, and international approach anchored in human geography while integrating fields like sociology, history, and media studies. Key themes of the course include identity, embodied experience, and space and place. How do sports instill or reinforce a sense of national identity, especially in international competitions like the Olympic Games or the soccer World Cup? How do some places become “hotbeds” of sporting talent? How does participation in sports reinforce or challenge hierarchies based on race-, gender-, and sexuality-based identities? How do “street sports” such as skateboarding or parkour promote radical engagements with urban public space? Is new stadium development (as in the Twin Cities, in recent years) actually a good economic investment? And how do new stadiums transform local urban spaces? We will explore these kinds of questions in intensive class discussions based on academic texts, popular media accounts, and documentaries. The course will also include field excursions to local stadiums, ethnographic study of the gameday spectator experience, and guest lectures by people involved in the business of sports (e.g., athletes, coaches, management, sports journalists). Students will have the opportunity to pursue their own sports geography interests more deeply in a final project. Offered alternate years. (4 Credits)