This class really opened my eyes to how influential sport is to our society. I really enjoyed discussing the cultures of the students in our class who are from another country. I believe that having them in our class really benefited me. (From this class I really realized how narrow minded I have been). Seeing and hearing how sport in America is portrayed to those not from our country was extremely interesting. I learned a lot about soccer (futbal) and how culturally it is integrated into a country.
I enjoyed our weekly readings. They were interesting and sparked good conversation and discussion in our class. I believe that as a whole we were able to dissect difficult topics. having students from all different backgrounds really made our conversations interesting and informative.
Being assigned to write and Epiphany was one of my favorite things about this class. Learning how to write about one of my experiences that has seriously shaped who I am today was challenging and I really enjoyed the process. It helped me grow as a writer and as a human being. Discussing my experiences and putting it into words for another person to experience was scary and rewarding at the same time. I really enjoyed this assignment.
Markula's (2001) article, Beyond the Perfect Body, really resonated with me. Body image is a huge issue in our society and after seeing my sister suffer from a eating disorder it is an issue that hits home for me. I never thought about fitness magazines as an issue, usually people mention magazines for fashion and beauty as the problem. But now I really can see how fitness magazines are creating an image of a fit body that is difficult for most people to accomplish. Seeing images over and over can really take a toll on a reader.
Keeping a blog was something that I had never done before. I liked being able to read what my classmates were saying about a topic and discuss with them through comments. It was pretty nerve-wracking for me to post blog entries because the idea of having everyone read what I am writing was a scary thought. I got over that at the end of the semester and enjoyed the feedback i got in the comment section.
I will take a lot from this class to my future career. Mostly in the way of looking at sport a bit differently. Seeing how much our lives are impacted by sport really shows how my fututre work in sport will be beneficial.
I'm glad I was able to take this class with all of you and i want to wish everyone luck with their future classes and job pursuits!
Maddy Amon
Maddy,
ReplyDeleteBefore I had switched my major my senior year of undergrad, I was also never exposed to a class similar to HMSL 6350 until I had taken Sport & Gender. If I had never changed my major, I don’t believe I would have ever been exposed to this type of research. I didn’t even know this was a field! I knew Sport Management was a major, but I would have never guessed these type of classes existed.
I’ve learned so much from this course from, like you stated, the material we covered and how it portrays the tight-knit relationship between sport and our society. I also liked the diversity within the class. I believe it significantly benefited class discussion, and in shaping my perspectives and opinions on issues by hearing the perspectives given by students from another culture. I also liked the diversity in specialization of studies as well. By having students from different programs in the classroom, we all were provided with insight that was gained through various research interests and/or styles.
Maddy,
ReplyDeleteLike you, one of my favorite assignments for this course was the epiphany. I think creative assignments, such as the epiphany, are refreshing in graduate school. Sometimes writing research papers can be overwhelming and feel like a banal process. However, the epiphany allowed me to not only express my creativity and subjectivity, but it encouraged me to reflect on an experience that was life-changing. I also found the idea of someone else reading my very personal experience scary, but, at the same time, I liked the feedback that I got from others. I am happy that I now have this important life experience documented for me to read in the future and even share with others. The epiphany kind of made me want to keep a daily journal so that I can keep track of life events and look back on important life experiences.
Thank you for sharing your thoughts, Maddy. I greatly appreciated the perspective provided by our international peers as well.
ReplyDeleteIt is sometimes easy to forget, as Americans, how insulated we are from the rest of the world both in sport and society as a whole. In my opinion Andreas and Yannick offered to the course unique points of view that I hadn’t been privileged with during my collegiate career.
Furthermore, in addition to offering an international perspective on sport their points of view gave me a greater appreciation for the necessity of diversity in higher education.
Maddy-I agree with you that this class really opened up my mind to the international implications sport has on societies. I think a lot of times we just focus on sport in America and I have realized how egocentric that is of us because of this class! I too enjoyed that we had an international presence in the class because I think we were able to gain a first hand understanding of what sport means to other countries. I really enjoyed listening to Yannick and Andreas when it came to soccer in Germany and Austria, you could hear the passion and rivalry between the two. Also, I too really enjoyed Markula’s (2001) article about body image. As you know, I have been involved with research that is concerned with understanding body image and construction in the media. So I enjoyed gaining more understanding in that field.
ReplyDelete