Sports play a giant role in contemporary society worldwide. But few of us pause to think about the larger questions of money, politics, race, sex, culture, and commercialization that surround sports everywhere. This course draws on the tools of anthropology, sociology, history, and other disciplines to give you new perspectives on the games we watch and play. It's the new and improved version of Professor Orin Starn's original "Sports and Society" for Coursera, which drew more than 40,000 students. We will focus on both popular sports like soccer (or “football,” as anyone outside America calls it), basketball, and baseball, and also lesser-known ones like mountain-climbing and fishing. You will never watch or think about sports in the same way again.
Offered By
Sports and Society
Duke UniversityAbout this Course
Offered by

Duke University
Duke University has about 13,000 undergraduate and graduate students and a world-class faculty helping to expand the frontiers of knowledge. The university has a strong commitment to applying knowledge in service to society, both near its North Carolina campus and around the world.
Syllabus - What you will learn from this course
Getting Started! Games, Play, and Sports
Globalization, Nationalism, and the Politics of Sports
Race, Cultural Identity, and the Sports World
Gender, Sexuality, and the Rise of Women's Sports
Reviews
- 5 stars84.44%
- 4 stars14.05%
- 3 stars1.03%
- 2 stars0.28%
- 1 star0.18%
TOP REVIEWS FROM SPORTS AND SOCIETY
Videos were awesome and readings were still applicable even in 2020. Only feedback would be update some of the readings to more current and a section on E-Sports.
An excellent course! Learned a lot! Genuinely disappointed that it's over. Wish the course was longer. I hope there is a part 2 or something like that. Brilliant!
I enjoyed the course very much. It would be interesting to have an updated course since this one was completed to discuss and reflect on the increase in activism by athletes, especially in 2020
The content and delivery of the course were excellent. Professor Orin Starn is a star educator: knowledgeable, entertaining, funny, engaging, and very accessible.
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