MANHATTANVILLE COLLEGE

                      IDS 100A Sec. 5                                                                   Fall, 2008
                 Preceptorial                                                                        Mr. Bowling
                 Sport, Play. & the Good Life                                               A. Palomba

Core Objectives of the Freshman Preceptorial 

     · A foundational level of competence in college-level critical thinking, reading skills and oral
         expression appropriate to a liberal arts education;

· College level competence in critical-analytical writing;

· Formulation and understanding of the connections between academic disciplines represented in the preceptorial theme, which in turn models the interrelatedness of all humanistic study.

Books to be Purchased

Johan Huizinga, Homo Ludens (Boston, 1971 [1938] ).

Nigel M. Kennell, Gymnasium of Virtue: Education and Culture in Ancient Sparta (Chapel Hill, 1997).

Gene Carney, Burying the Black Sox (Dulles, Va., 2007).

W. K. Stratton, Backyard Brawl; Inside the Blood Feud Between Texas and Texas A&M  (New York, 2002).

C. L. R. James, Beyond a Boundary (Durham, 1993 [1963]).

Jere Longman, The Girls of Summer/ The U.S. Women’s Soccer Team & How it Changed the World (New York, 2000).

     David Wangerin, Soccer in a Football World; The Story of America’s Forgotten Game (Philadelphia,
           2008).

Other Material

    Clifford Geertz, Deep Play; Notes on the Balinese Cockfight (online).

    William James, The Moral Equivalent of War (online)

    Texas/Texas A&M Game:  Thanksgiving, Austin

    Guest Speakers: Patrick Scanlon ’03, MVILLE Head Men’s Basketball Coach;  Michael Tedone ’08.

Requirements

·        Attendance

·        Patricipation

·        Readings

·        Papers

·        Examinations

Schedule

·        Introduction (Aaron relics, handout readings)

·        Huinziga:  Thinking seriously about sport & play

·        Kennell:  Classical Civilization, sport, and war

·        Geertz:  Cockfighting in Bali: multidimensional meanings

·        Carney:  The Greatest Scandal in American Sports History—“the moral equivalent of war”

·        Boxing in America  [Patrick Scanlon ’03, MVILLE Head Men’s Basketball Coach]

·        Stratton:  Rivalry, A Case Study:  “more than a game” [Rites of Autumn DVD]

·        Who was Hobey Baker? [Michael Tedone ’08, “Golden” DVD]

·        James:  Imperialism & the Spread of Sport

·        Wangerin and Longman:  The World’s Most Popular Game, the “Woman Question” in Sports

·        “Our House” [“Palestra” DVD]

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