Course Description & Goals
Sports is a socially constructed phenomenon often mirroring a society’s structure, behavioral patterns, and culture, serving vital social functions and reproducing and resisting social injustices. In other words, sports represent a microcosm of society. In this course, we will use the topic of sports in society to investigate and apply sociological concepts to co-constructed individual and collective work.
We will also use the topic of sports to investigate questions fundamental to our human and social existence, including who we are and what we want to become--both individually and as a society--and the role of sports in that being and becoming. We will investigate these questions as we identify and investigate personally relevant topics, with the aim of practicing bringing our best selves to our work -- with curiosity, a humble sense of not knowing, a collective sense of mutuality and care, and a goal of, in the words of Adrienne Rich, claiming our own education.
Learning Objectives:
Learn about and apply sociological frameworks and theories to personally relevant topics of sports in society that provide opportunities for self-growth and self-awareness around questions of who we are and who we want to be
Learn how to conduct an independent research project using sociological concepts and/or methods
Learn about inequality through a sociological lens using sports as a focus
Develop skills for engaging in critical self-reflection, including the ability to hold divergent points of view and to integrate new frames of reference and new ways of being
Develop skills for engaging in collaborative and mutually beneficial learning
Develop an understanding of our personal and collective power to act with agency to create change at the individual and community levels
- Subject:
- Social Science
- Sociology
- Material Type:
- Full Course
- Syllabus
- Author:
- Lindsey Wilkinson
- Date Added:
- 11/29/2021