This course will introduce students to the influential and interdisciplinary field of cultural studies by engaging some of the key critical writings on the concept of “culture” and situating these critical ideas in relation to a very specific topic: baseball. The course presumes no interest in baseball or sport per se, but instead aims to look at baseball as a cultural site, an important space where cultural issues like race and class are articulated and contested.

One purpose for cultural studies is to engage with spaces that are typically seen as not sufficiently intellectual or academic, not “cultivated” or “cultured” enough to warrant serious reflection or study. Cultural studies as a discipline in the US and the UK emerged in the 1950s and 60s as a method to consider the political and social implications of culture at large, and since that time has branched into different approaches that can all loosely be termed “cultural studies.” In this class we will be engaging with different models of cultural studies, and putting these models to use in studying cultural materials ranging from novella to theater to film and visual culture. The unifying theme across these different cultural materials is the relationship between baseball and race.

For this course, the method for demonstrating understanding and engagement with the materials will be through formal and informal writing assignments. In both the formal and informal assignments, writing serves as a place to explore meanings, connections, and ideas. As such, all of the formal course writing will involve feedback and revision, and all of the informal writing will help both discussion and development of the formal writing assignments. There will also be a small group presentation required.

4. Book List:

Don DeLillo, Pafko at the Wall
August Wilson, Fences

Additional, shorter texts to be selected from Matthew Arnold, CLR James, W.E.B. Du Bois, Raymond Williams, Stuart Hall, Adrian Burgos, Amy Bass, Alan Klein, Ken Burns, Toby Miller, Roberto Gonzalez-Echevarría, Ian McDonald, and Ben Carrington. These texts will be made available on e-reserve.