|For Immediate Release
December 21, 1999
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Office of Marketing and Communications
During the past few decades, scholars have begun to recognize the critical impact of “sport” in society. Taken-for-granted aspects of sport are usually are usually instilled when individuals pick up their first ball, swing a racket or dive into the water. Helping students move beyond those aspects is a Sociology of Sport course offered at Indiana University Northwest during the Spring 2000 semester.
The course allows students to see what lies beneath the surface of sport in contemporary society and will give them an opportunity to study social issues such as racism, sexism and violence in society as it applies to sport. It will also take students beyond the mass media images that society receives about sport via television, radio, newspapers and the Internet.
“The sociology of sport is still a relatively recent endeavor,” says Charles Gallmeier, associate professor of sociology. “Sport is often called a microcosm of society. It is said to reflect society – and is a prominent influence in socializing children.”