Visiting Scholar to Talk About Public Role of Sports
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 11, 2001
Kathleen McPartland
530-898-4260
Visiting Scholar to Talk About Public Role of Sports
Vernon Andrews, visiting scholar at the University of California, Berkeley, and alumnus of California State University, Chico, will talk about the public role of sports related to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on Tuesday, Oct. 16, at 6 p.m. in the Harlen Adams Theatre.
Andrews is in Chico on a sabbatical from the University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand, where he teaches courses on ethnicity and identity and contemporary American culture. He is working on a book, Black BodiesÑWhite Control: Race, Culture, Class and Celebratory Expression in American Sport, forthcoming from Temple University Press.
Andrews, who holds a Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in sociology, focuses his research on Black athletes’ expression in sports and the role it plays in non-verbal cultural clashes. The behaviors he looks at that most often disrupt societal norms and are punished within the institution of sports include trash talking, zone dancing, taunting and other on-field physical expressions.
Andrews’ work with expression in sports falls into a larger area of diverse expression in social institutions. Andrews suggests that one of the major problems of the 21st century will be the struggle in the United States to incorporate a wider range of cultural behaviors in social institutions. The United States is encountering increasing numbers of conflicts from other nation-states and groups who disagree with America’s exported cultural practices.
Andrews will discuss the special role of sports in national expression, especially for American males, and the significance of canceling all sporting events after the Sept. 11 tragedy. He’ll talk about possible implications of removing a primary outlet of expression at a time when feelings of anger are increased in response to the terrorist attacks.
Andrews’ talk is free and open to the public. It is sponsored by the Department of Sociology, the Department of Physical Education and Exercise Science, and the Building Bridges Program, a program that supports speakers and activities that increase tolerance and decrease violence on campus and in the community.
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