WGS377H1

Playing, Sports, Cultures

Why do we play? How do movement practices shape our selves and environments? What do sports — and the cultures around them — mean and do today? This course explores sports worlds through the lenses of feminist cultural studies. Through a selection of key concepts and case studies, we examine questions of representation, identity, economics, policy and regulation, and audiences and fandoms to consider what sports cultures teach us about what it means to be human. Readings will touch on a variety of fields connected to feminist cultural studies, including Black feminism, trans studies, Indigenous studies, disability studies, fan studies, and feminist political economy. It explores the local and global power relations that shape sports worlds, what’s at stake when we move our bodies in different ways, and the transformative potential of play.