BEXP 17A14 - Sport and Society in the Atlantic World

In the summer of 2024, Paris hosted the Olympics and Paralympic Games, marking the third time the city has held the global sporting festival and the sixth time the

Games have taken place in France. The staging of the Games, along with the plethora of programs and museum exhibitions that accompanied them, created the

conditions for an ongoing exploration of the impact of the sport industry on the country in the past and present. This course explores the history of sport and

society in France, focusing on the country’s role in the staging of mega sporting events, including the Olympics, the World Cup, the Tour de France, the Roland

Garros tennis tournament, and other sporting competitions. The guiding questions of the course are: What was France’s role in the rise of the global sport industry?

How having sporting practices been shaped by histories of empire and decolonization? How does sport continue to reveal social conflicts and shape

understandings of class, race, gender, and nation? Beginning with an exploration of the ideological roots of the Olympic movement among French elites and tracing the

massification of sporting spectacles throughout the 20th and 21st centuries, the course explores the local and global implications of sport as a cultural practice,

political contest, and economic concern. Course readings will form a shared basis for critical discussion, whether students consider themselves fans of sport or not.

Indeed, the course is designed to persuade students of the larger import of the sports world.