English 47N: Sports and Culture
Tu Th 9:00-10:30 Building 160-319
Professor Blakey Vermeule
Office: 325 Margaret Jacks Hall
Office hours: Tuesday Thursday 3:15-4:45
e-mail: vermeule@stanford.edu
Stanford has the most successful student-athlete program in the country (maybe ever)
and athletics are an enormously important aspect of Stanford’s student culture. This
course looks in depth at sports in American culture. Through film, essays, fiction, poetry
and other media, we will explore an array of topics including representations of the
athlete, violence, beauty, the mass media, ethics, college sports, race and gender.
Schedule of Readings and Assignments:
Tuesday April 1 Course Introduction: “June 17, 1994” and discussion
Thursday April 3 watch 30 for 30 episode “The Two Escobars” available on Netflix
The Artist vs. the Athlete
Tuesday April 8
Martin Scorsese, Raging Bull
Thursday April 10
Scorsese Raging Bull; David Foster Wallace, “How Tracy Austin
Broke my Heart”; “Roger Federer as Religious Experience”
Football in America I
Tuesday April 15
Greg Easterbrook, The King of Sports (pp. 1-109)
Thursday April 17
Greg Easterbrook, The King of Sports (pp. 109-178)
Football in America II
Tuesday April 22
Easterbrook, The King of Sports (pp. 178-279)
Thursday April 24
Easterbrook, The King of Sports (finish)
Sports and the University
Tuesday April 29
Branch, The Cartel (all)
Thursday May 1
Watch “Schooled: The Price of College Sports” (Netflix)
Watch 30 for 30: “The U” (Netflix)
Sports and Statistics
Tuesday, May 6
Moneyball (film)
Thursday May 8
30 for 30: “Silly Little Game” (Netflix)
The Science of Sports
Tuesday May 13
Epstein, The Sports Gene (pp. 1-75)
Thursday May 15
Epstein, Sports Gene (pp. 75-150)
Sports and Race
Tuesday May 20
Epstein, Sports Gene (pp. 150-175)
Thursday May 22
Epstein, Sports Gene (pp. 175-200)
Sports and Gender
Tuesday May 27
Epstein, Sports Gene (pp. 200-250)
Thursday May 29
Epstein, Sports Gene (pp. 250-end)
Sports and Beauty/Disability/Aging
Tuesday June 3
The following books are available in the Stanford Bookstore (and are also available as
electronic books)
Easterbrook, Gregg. The King of Sports: Football’s Impact on America, 2013.
Epstein, David J. The Sports Gene: Inside the Science of Extraordinary Athletic
Performance, 2013.
Branch, Taylor. The Cartel: Inside the Rise and Imminent Fall of the NCAA. Byliner Inc.,
2011.
CourseWork: Other required readings will be announced along the way and
available via the “Materials” section of our CourseWork site. Please also
check the CourseWork site for announcements regarding readings and
assignments, and for supporting materials and links.
Course requirements:
The core of this course is discussion and debate. I have designed the assignments with
that core in mind.
1. Active reading, attendance, and participation in seminars
2. 7 250 word papers. These will be due to me by 5 pm on Friday of each week. You
should pick part of the week’s reading or viewing that you find puzzling or worthy of
discussion. You should make an argument about the issue you have identified, using a
thesis sentence and supporting evidence.
3. Twice during the quarter you will lead class discussion. You will find some creative
interesting way to address the subject matter and/or the reading or film and to give us
an issue that we can chew on together. (You may pre-circulate a small amount of
reading or ask us to watch a video or anything you like.) As necessary, you will confer
with the other person or people who are leading discussion that day.
4. A very short take-home final exam that will be due at the end of the regularly
scheduled exam time for our class.
How I will assess your final grades
I am going to be doing the grading on a point system. You can decide how much effort
to put into this class based on what kind of grade you want.
1. Seven 250-word papers.
Instead of writing the standard two papers over the course of the quarter, I will
ask you to write a short (roughly 1 page double spaced) paper (almost) every
week. You can pick which seven weeks in which to write papers depending on
your own schedule.
These papers will be due by email to me on Friday of each week by 5 pm. If the
paper is not turned in by 5 pm on Friday, I will consider that you have not written
a paper for that week, unless you have a very good reason, one that you have
given me in advance.
These papers will be graded either Pass or High Pass.
Pass = 8 points
High pass = 10 points
So if you get a High Pass on all seven papers, you will get 70 points for this
section of the course.
If you get Pass on all 7 papers, you will get 56 points for this section of the
course.
If a paper is more than two days late with no excuse proffered in advance, you
can’t get a HP on it.
2. Presence/Active participation class (which doesn’t necessarily mean talking--just
being awake and alert and intellectually present) in each class will be worth 1 point.
There are 19 classes. You may skip one class without penalty or excuse. After
that every unexcused absence will reduce your point total for the class by 1.
So if you show up at 18 classes, you will get 18 points for this section of the class
3. Leading class discussion. Each time you lead a class discussion you will get 3 points for
a total of 6 possible points.
4. The take home final will be graded Pass or High Pass.
Pass = 6 points
High Pass = 4 points
How this works: if you are happy with a B in the class, you can write seven papers with
a grade of Pass (which means writing the papers up to a decent standard), come to all
classes, lead your two class discussions, and write the take-home final with a grade of
Pass. This will give you 84 points. (56 + 18 + 6 + 4).
If you want a higher grade, you can put effort into making your papers and the takehome final excellent. I will explain what this means in class.
If you are happy with a lower grade, you can skip classes and even skip writing one of
the papers should you choose.
I will give you written and/or verbal feedback on your papers and in-class performance
throughout the quarter. I ask you to come visit me in office hours, or if that isn’t
possible, make a phone appointment with me at least once during the quarter.
Policies and Expectations
I have a strict no gadget policy including laptops. Please switch off phones
and other electronics. I will consider exceptions to this rule in cases of
compelling need.
The Honor Code applies to all the work for this class. Here is a link to the
Honor Code
http://studentaffairs.stanford.edu/communitystandards/policy/honor-code
If you require any particular accommodation or assistance in taking this
class, please speak to me at the earliest possible point. If you have a letter
from the Office of Accessible Education, please send this to me.