Module HIST44530: Serious Fun: the History of Modern Sports

Department: History

HIST44530: Serious Fun: the History of Modern Sports

Prerequisites

• None

Corequisites

• None

Excluded Combination of Modules

• None

Aims

• To introduce students to advanced debates and case-studies in the history of modern sport
• To help students gain a deeper understanding of the role of sport in modern cultures and societies

Content

• Modern sport, from its beginnings in late eighteenth-century Britain to the universal appeal it enjoys in the present, continues to be an exceptionally rich subject of historical investigation. It allows scholars to focus on a variety of topics, ranging from the history of the body and bodily practices, to sport’s importance for narratives of gender, class, ethnicity and empire (metropole and colony), as well as its role in the making of national identities. Other topics of interest to sport historians include its symbiotic relationship with the media and its role in the formation and shape of modern mass culture. Moreover, it was successfully exploited for ideological and political purposes by democracies and dictatorial regimes alike since the 1930s. Global sport spectacles such as the Olympic Games and Football World Cups provide opportunities to study a host of issues: from the rise of INGOs like FIFA and the IOC in the post-war era, to urban renewal and sustainability in an age of commercialization, to securitization in the face of terrorism since the 1970s, to grand historical topics such as ‘globalization’. Finally, beyond investigating the role of sports within these wider contexts, historians of sport are occupied with the history of individual sports themselves. The module will explore the ideas of Alan Guttmann, Norbert Elias and Pierre Bourdieu on sport among other theoretical approaches. Proceeding both chronologically and thematically, it will focus closely on explanations for the emergence of modern sports during the English industrial revolution (e.g. Holt, Eisenberg, Eichberg). It will concentrate on sport’s diffusion and beginning globalization from the second half of the nineteenth century. It will explain its role both as a mirror for twentieth-century attitudes towards nation, class, gender and ethnicity, and as an agent in shaping these. It will assess sport’s role in the international arena from the interwar years to the Cold War and discuss its increased globalization and commercialization in the post-Cold-War world. Special attention will be dedicated throughout to sport’s semi-autonomous status between following its own rules and forming part of society. Students’ presentations in class and their final piece of coursework will allow them to develop detailed historical investigations that draw on the rich sociological and historical debates about sport while examining a particular case in modern sport history.

Learning Outcomes

• advanced knowledge and understanding of key issues and historiographical debates in the modern history of sport
• advanced knowledge and understanding of key methodological challenges associated with study in this field

• The ability to identify and analyse historical evidence in a sophisticated manner
• The ability to appreciate, assess and apply advanced historiographical and conceptual approaches to Modern History
• The ability to manage bodies of historical evidence and historiography, including the gathering, sifting, synthesising, marshalling and presenting of such information
• The ability to use advanced skills of historical analysis, including posing questions, assessing interpretations, assembling evidence and arguments to enable the evaluation of a hypothesis, which may involve exploring the current limits of knowledge
• The ability to present historical findings in clear and appropriate written forms

• discrimination, judgment and autonomy
• familiarity with appropriate means of identifying, finding, retrieving, sorting and exchanging information
• research capabilities, including the ability to pose, consider and solve complex problems
• structure, coherence, clarity and fluency of written expression
• intellectual integrity, maturity and an appreciation of the validity of the reasoned views of others

Modes of Teaching, Learning and Assessment and how these contribute to the learning outcomes of the module

• Student learning is facilitated by a range of teaching methods.
• Seminars and Group Discussion require students to reflect on and discuss: their prior knowledge and experience; set reading of secondary and, where appropriate, primary readings; information provided during the session. They provide a forum in which to assess and comment critically on the findings of others, defend their conclusions in a reasoned setting, and advance their knowledge and understanding of modern sports history.
• Structured reading requires students to focus on set materials integral to the knowledge and understanding of the module. It specifically enables the acquisition of detailed knowledge and skills which will be discussed in other areas of the teaching and learning experience.
• Assessment is by means of a 5000 word essay which requires the acquisition and application of advanced knowledge and understanding of an aspect of modern sports history. Essays require a sustained and coherent argument in defence of a hypothesis, and must be presented in a clearly written and structured form, and with appropriate apparatus.

Teaching Methods and Learning Hours

Summative Assessment

Formative Assessment:

One or more short assignments delivered orally and discussed in a group context.

■ Attendance at all activities marked with this symbol will be monitored. Students who fail to attend these activities, or to complete the summative or formative assessment specified above, will be subject to the procedures defined in the University's General Regulation V, and may be required to leave the University