Scribner Seminar Program
2006-2007 Titles
Sport, Self and Society

Instructor(s): Phil Boshoff, English and Jeff Segrave, Exercise Science

Description: How many hours do we devote to sport in a week, as participants or fans? How many of us follow with fanatical devotion a favorite team or athlete? Whether on the school, club, neighborhood, city, or national level, many of us identify passionately with athletes, teams, and our chosen sports. In this seminar, we will examine our personal relationship to sports as recreation and institution. We will broaden our focus to study the structure and culture of athletics over the past three-hundred years, examining the relationship of sport to such social, cultural and political institutions as clubs, schools, neighborhoods, church, state and nation. We will also consider sport’s past and present role in international affairs and its enormous economic presence in our lives. The seminar will feature several field trips as well as featured speakers.