Michigan State University HST 487 - Spring 2011

GLOBAL  SOCCER:  History,  Culture,  and  Politics  

Weekly Seminar:

Tue 1:50-4:40 Berkey 210A

Dr. Peter Alegi 315 Morrill Hall 432-8222 x113 alegi@msu.edu

Office Hours: Tue-Wed 10-11:30 and

by appointment

Course Description No history of the modern world is complete without a history of soccer (football). This course explores how and why global football influenced, and was influenced by, various factors, including cultural values, economic interests, and power relationships. The course combines general analysis with national case studies that invite connections across boundaries of time and space. By examining the intersections of the personal and the social, the local and the global, we will explore how race, class, ethnicity, gender, media, and business made the world of soccer we see today. We will read and discuss a wide range of texts and will engage with audio-visual sources about the game. This capstone seminar will both test and enhance skills of critical thinking, oral communication, research and writing. Required Course Readings

• David Goldblatt, The Ball is Round: A Global History of Soccer • Peter Alegi, African Soccerscapes: How a Continent Changed the World’s Game • Laurent Dubois, Soccer Empire: The World Cup and the Future of France • Robert Edelman, Spartak Moscow: A History of The People’s Team in the

Workers’ State • Nick Hornby, Fever Pitch • Jere Longman, The Girls of Summer: The US Women’s Soccer Team and How it

Changed the World Additional readings are available on ANGEL. Check ANGEL regularly for updates. Course Requirements and Assessment Every assignment will count towards your final grade so it is crucial to prepare properly and consistently every week. Like a soccer season, this seminar is a marathon and not a sprint. Final grades will be determined as follows: Participation = 15% Weekly responses = 25% Midterm take-home exam = 25% Research paper = 35% Attendance and Participation This is a reading and discussion seminar so attendance is required. You are expected to read the assigned material before class and to participate. Only one excused seminar absence is permitted. Let me know in advance if you must miss a class meeting due to a medical (or similar) emergency. Bring official documentation for any such absence. Participation grades will be based on performance as discussion leader, the quality of your responses, and how much you contributed to deepening your classmates’ understanding of the material.

Weekly Précis These typed 2-page summaries will briefly explain the book’s main argument, organization, use of sources, and its contribution to our understanding of the history of soccer and/or global history more broadly. Hard copies of the précis must be submitted in class at the beginning of every seminar meeting. Mid-Term Exam Students will write take-home essays in response to questions handed out on February 22. Exams will be 7-8 pages in length and will be submitted in class on March 1. Research Paper The most important assignment in this capstone seminar is the writing of a research paper 20-25 pages in length. Using primary and secondary sources, you will devise individual paper topics and research questions with the approval of the professor. A schedule of assignments (see below) will help in the completion of a high-quality final paper due on May 3. Note: All assignments must be typed using double-line spacing, 12-point font (Times New Roman or similar), and 1-1.25 inch margins. Pages must be stapled together, numbered consecutively and have the author’s name, student ID number, and course information in the top left corner (single spaced) of the first page (only).

CLASS SCHEDULE January 11: Introduction to the Course and Library Session January 18: From Ancient Games to Modern Football Read:

• Goldblatt, The Ball is Round, 3-82 • Mary Ellen Miller, “The [Maya] Ball Game,” Record of the Art Museum,

Princeton University 48, 2 (1989): 22-31 [ANGEL] • Mark Nuttall, “Arsarnerit: Inuit and the Heavenly Game,” in J. Turnbull, T.

Satterlee, A. Raab, The Global Game (2008), 274-282 [ANGEL] January 25: Football Goes Global: European Empires, FIFA, and Professionalism Read:

• Goldblatt, Ball is Round, 85-260 February 1: Fútbol/Futebol in Latin America: The Politics of Fun

RESEARCH PORTFOLIO ITEM #1 DUE (paper topic) Read:

• Goldblatt, Ball is Round, 263-296, 357-395, 606-648

February 8: The People’s Game in the Workers’ State: The USSR RESEARCH PORTFOLIO ITEM #2 DUE (preliminary bibliography) Read:

• Robert Edelman, Spartak Moscow, 1-230 • Optional: Goldblatt, Ball is Round, 297-356, 396-478

February 15: How Africa Changed the World’s Game

RESEARCH PORTFOLIO ITEM #3 DUE (research questions) Read:

• Alegi, African Soccerscapes (entire book) February 22: The Soccer Business: 1974-2006 (part 1) RESEARCH PORTFOLIO ITEM #4 DUE (thesis statement and outline) Read:

• Goldblatt, Ball is Round, 513-605 • Barbara Smit, Pitch Invasion, 3-41, 188-199 [ANGEL]

March 1: The Soccer Business: 1974-2006 (part 2)

TAKE-HOME MID-TERM EXAM DUE. Read:

• Goldblatt, Ball is Round, 681-829 (831-873 optional) • Smit, Pitch Invasion, 225-241 [ANGEL]

March 8: No Class – Spring Break! March 15: Football Fandom and the Literary Imagination Read:

• Nick Hornby, Fever Pitch (entire book) • Optional: John Turnbull, Thom Satterlee, Alon Raab, eds., The Global Game:

Writers on Soccer

March 22: Race and National Identity in French Football Read:

• Dubois, Soccer Empire, 1-213 • Optional: John Hoberman, “France’s Soccer Debacle Lifts Lid on Racial

Tensions,” Foreign Policy (July 2010): http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2010/07/01/le_scandal

• Optional: Paul Silverstein, “The Tragedy and Farce of French Football Politics,” Social Text (2010): http://www.socialtextjournal.org/periscope/2010/07/the-tragedy-and-farce-of-french-football-politics.php

March 29: The Rise of the Women’s Game Read:

• Longman, The Girls of Summer (entire book) • Optional: Fan Hong and J. A. Mangan, eds., Soccer, Women, and Sexual

Liberation, 112-161, 182-204, 225-267 (include Germany) • Optional: Dong Jinxia and J. A. Mangan, “Ascending then Descending? Women’s

Soccer in Modern China,” Soccer and Society 3, 2 (2002): 1-18 April 5: (Men’s) Soccer in the United States FILM: Once in a Lifetime: The Extraordinary Story of the New York Cosmos Read:

• A. Markovits and S. Hellerman, Offside! Soccer and American Exceptionalism, 52-98 [ANGEL]

• David Wangerin, Soccer in a Football World, 45-80 [ANGEL] • Andrew Ross, “The Ballad of Becks and Posh,” American Quarterly 59, 4 (2007):

1215-1223 [ANGEL] • Grant Wahl, The Beckham Experiment (excerpt):

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2009/writers/the_bonus/06/29/beckham.book/index.html

April 12: The World Cup Comes to Africa: South Africa 2010 Read:

• Alegi, African Soccerscapes, 127-132 (review) • Alegi and Bolsmann, Reflections on 2010, selections [ANGEL] • Media coverage of the 2010 World Cup [ANGEL] • AUDIO: Africa Past and Present Podcast Episode 43: Reflections on Africa’s

First World Cup (http://afripod.aodl.org/2010/07/episode-43-reflections-on-africas-first-world-cup/)

• AUDIO: “After The Final” with Karabo Mathang and Sindi Mabizela: http://www.discussit.co.za/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=256&Itemid=1

April 19: Paper Presentations, Part 1 No readings assigned. RESEARCH PAPER DRAFTS CAN BE SUBMITTED. April 26: Paper Presentations, Part 2 No readings assigned. May 3: RESEARCH PAPERS DUE at 2:45 p.m. in Dr. Alegi’s mailbox (301

Morrill)

* * * This syllabus may be amended from time to time.