OSUN Themes: Global Justice; Human Rights; Inequalities
The Beautiful Game: A Global History of Soccer
Term: January 30, 2024 – May 13, 2024Level: 300-Level
Day/Time: Tuesday 8:00 AM - 10:00 AM EST
Instructor: Lloyd Hazvineyi, Bard College
Soccer has enthralled and excited many audiences throughout the centuries. From the factory workers in Victorian England to colonial prisoners such as Nelson Mandela incarcerated on Robben Island, to the streets of Sao Paulo Brazil, soccer has been one of the most consequential and celebrated sports. This course takes the position that soccer is more than just a game and invites students to consider and examine the cultural, social, and political meanings that societies around the world have attached to the beautiful game. The class situates the global history of soccer in the context of themes that include industrialization, settler colonialism, race, segregation, empire, violence, and corruption. As such, the class engages explicit political dimensions of soccer such as Catalan nationalist ambitions in Spain, which are often expressed in the Spanish derby, the El Classico between Barcelona (from the Catalan region) and Real Madrid (from Madrid). The class also explores how soccer became entangled in anti-apartheid and anti-colonial struggles across the African continent. Through class readings, discussions, and documentary screenings, students will be expected to examine and comment on how dominant ideas about race, belonging, as well as social hierarchies have been negotiated on the field of play. The class foregrounds questions that seek to understand the role of sport in society, interrogating how soccer has not only mirrored society's prejudices but has often reproduced them.
Credits: 4 US / 8 ECTS