SEMINARS SPRING 2008
HONR 219M Fit for the Nation: Physical Culture and Civic Responsibility
in American Society
Wednesdays 2:30-5:00 p.m.
Dr. Jaime Schultz, Department of Kinesiology
There has been a recent resurgence of the concept of citizenship in academic literature. This seminar will investigate the concept of citizenship and its intersection with physical culture, a term that encompasses physical fitness, exercise, sport, organized play, recreation, dance, and the like. We will begin by exploring United States citizenship and the ways in which "fitness" is determined, measured, and normalized. As the semester progresses, we will examine a number of historical and contemporary periods in which physical culture and citizenship are connected.
There are many ways to consider the relationships between the idea of being "fit" and the duties, obligations, privileges and rights associated with U.S. citizenship. For instance, there are periods in history when individuals have been encouraged to increase their physical competencies as part of their patriotic duties. Times of war often reveal deficient American fitness levels, inspiring dramatic changes to physical education programs in public schools. At other times, campaigns to increase physical fitness have directly or indirectly excluded or disadvantaged citizens by race, ethnicity, social class, religion, sexuality, or (dis)ability.
Physical culture has also been used to challenge dominant power relations and as a vehicle for those relegated to the ranks of "second class" citizens to draw attention to their talents, their potential, and to larger social contexts that constrain them from being fully participating members of society. At the turn of the twentieth century, for example, women staged swimming competitions, scaled mountains, and "[rode] to suffrage on a bicycle" (in the words of Elizabeth Cady Stanton) in their quest for the right to vote. Later, the 1960s' protests by African American athletes highlighted pernicious racial inequities in the United States. The list goes on and on; indeed, there are countless ways in which physical culture, in all its myriad forms, is intimately connected with what it means to be an American citizen.
As we being to tease out these relationships, there will be a variety of assignments that students will complete, such as weekly reflection papers, individual and class presentations, a midterm essay, and a major term project that will be presented in a "mini conference" toward the end of the semester. Class meetings will consist primarily of discussion, allowing time for visits from guest speakers and trips to local, relevant attractions. Tentative readings include a collection of scholarly articles and chapters from books like Dyreson's Making the American Team, Green's Fit for America, Grover's Fitness in America, Isin and Turner's Handbook of Citizenship Studies, Pope's Patriotic Games, and Selden's Inheriting Shame.
CORE: Social or Political History [SH] and Human Cultural Diversity [D]
