ENGL 3821 Sporting Rhetorics: Language, Games, and Culture

Sports can be one of the most important formative elements in our lives, teaching us individual discipline, the spirit of collaboration, and aspirational goals of excellence. Even more, through sports, we also encounter themes of nationalism, social class, gender, sexuality, history, and so on. Drawing on critical approaches from rhetoric, archival studies, American history, in this class we examine the role of sports in our individual lives and American culture at large. Students will learn key theoretical approaches to the study of sport, games, and play and will engage in a research project on a particular aspect of sports and culture. Learning Objectives include: 1) Students will master theories of sport and sports communication 2) Students will apply those concepts in a research project. The course will also incorporate outside-of-the-classroom activities in and around campus and the City of Boston into the course curriculum.