This course is a seminar on the theory of sport, with an interest in its historical, philosophical, sociological, and political-economic implications.

The course will primarily consist of readings and discussion of some key texts in the history and philosophy of sport. While the readings themselves will not primarily deal with the ways sport is used in or facilitated by computation, the purpose of the course is to provide a background in key texts and theories in order to motivate subsequent research on the applications and interpretations of sports in digital media. To this end, in addition to consideration of the general topic of sport, class discussions and assignments will involve extending that historical and theoretical material into the digital domain.

Requirements

This is a seminar course. That means students will be expected to thoroughly read a lot of material each week, to discuss that material in class, and to respond to this material in a way that will extend your goals, be they professional or scholarly applications of sport to specific practices.

Since this is a graduate course directed at students with an explicit interest in connecting the history and philosophy of sports to digital media, each student will be asked to prepare, over the course of the term, some appropriate theoretical or creative response to the materials in question. Because we are not considering specific examples of digital applications of sports philosophy and history, students will be expected to produce a work that extends these materials into their chosen area of application. For some of you, that may involve an article, thesis, or dissertation already in progress. For others, it may involve the creative application of one or more theories as inspiration for a concrete artifact. For others, it may require that you project into a future work that you may not begin seriously for some time, for example via a prototype or a series of short articles. Given that this will be a small class, individual project plans should be worked out on an individual basis.

Materials

These books are available at the Engineers Bookstore or via your favorite bookseller. Note that: (a) the Elias and Eichberg books are rather expensive, and (b) Best’s Philosophy and Human Movement is out of print, so you’ll need to get a used copy.

Required texts:

  1. David Best, Philosophy and Human Movement (Unwin)
  2. Steven Connor, A Philosophy of Sport (Reaktion, forthcoming November 2011)
  3. Garry Crawford: Consuming Sport: Fans, Sport and Culture (Routledge)
  4. Henning Eichberg, Bodily Democracy: Towards a Philosophy of Sport for All (Routledge)
  5. K. Anders Ericsson, The Road To Excellence: the Acquisition of Expert Performance in the Arts and Sciences, Sports, and Games (Psychology Press)
  6. Hans Ulrich Gumbrecht, In Praise of Athletic Beauty (Belknap)
  7. Richard Holt, Sport and the British: A Modern History (Oxford)
  8. Simon Kuper and Stefan Szymanski, Soccernomics: Why England Loses, Why Germany and Brazil Win, and Why the U.S., Japan, Australia, Turkey—and Even Iraq—Are Destined to Become the Kings of the World’s Most Popular Sport (Nation)
  9. Donald G. Kyle, Sport and Spectacle in the Ancient World (Wiley-Blackwell)
  10. Andrei Markovits and Steven Hellerman, Offside: Soccer and American Exceptionalism (Princeton)
  11. Sal Paolantonio, How Football Explains America (Triumph)
  12. Earle F. Zeigler, Sport and Physical Education in the Middle Ages (Trafford)

Optional texts:

  1. Norbert Elias and Eric Dunning, Quest for Excitement: Sport and Leisure in the Civilising Process (Dublin)
  2. Andrei S. Markovits and Lars Rensmann, Gaming the World: How Sports Are Reshaping Global Politics and Culture (Princeton)
Schedule

(The following schedule is tentative and subject to additions and changes)

Week 1 – August 23

Introductions – Goals – Expectations – Etc.

 Week 2 – August 30

Philosophy of Sport I

Gumbrecht, In Praise of Athletic Beauty

 Week 3 – September 6

History of Sport I

Kyle, Sport and Spectacle in the Ancient World

 Week 4 – September 13

No Class Meeting

 Week 5 – September 20

Philosophy of Sport II

Best, Philosophy and Human Movement

 Week 6 – September 27

History of Sport II

Zeigler, Sport and Physical Education in the Middle Ages (1-96, 110-119, 178-191)

Peter Burke, “The Invention of Leisure in Early Modern Europe,” Past & Present 146 (Feb 1995)

Francis P. Magoun, “Il Gioco del Calcio Fiorentino,” Italica 19:1 (March 1942), 1-21

John McClelland, “Montaigne and the Sports of Italy,” Renaissance and Reformation 27:2 (2003), 41-51.

 Week 7 – October 4

Sociology of Sport I

Elias and Dunning, Quest for Excitement (excerpts)

Bourdieu, “Programme for a Sociology of Sport” (handout)

 Week 8 – October 11

History of Sport III

Holt, Sport and the British

 Week 9 – October 18
 Fall Break – Class rescheduled for Thursday

Sociology of Sport II

Crawford: Consuming Sport

 Week 10 – October 25

No Class Meeting

 Week 11 – November 1

Philosophy of Sport III

Connor, A Philosophy of Sport

 Week 12 – November 8

America

Paolantonio, How Football Explains America

Markovits and Hellerman, Offside

 Week 13 – November 15

No Class Meeting

 Week 14 – November 22

Philosophy of Sport IV

Eichberg, Bodily Democracy

 Week 15 – November 29

Globalization

Kuper and Szymanski, Soccernomics

Markovits and Rensmann, Gaming the World (excerpts)

 Week 16 – December 6

Virtuosity

Ericson, The Road to Excellence

Dave Hickey, “The Heresy of Zone Defense”

David Foster Wallace, “Federer as Religious Experience”