| Unit name | Playing Cultures: sports, games and bodily practices |
|---|---|
| Unit code | ARCH20072 |
| Credit points | 20 |
| Level of study | I/5 |
| Teaching block(s) |
Teaching Block 2 (weeks 13 - 24) |
| Unit director | Dr. Tantam |
| Open unit status | Not open |
| Units you must take before you take this one (pre-requisite units) |
None |
| Units you must take alongside this one (co-requisite units) |
None |
| Units you may not take alongside this one |
None |
| School/department | Department of Anthropology and Archaeology |
| Faculty | Faculty of Arts |
Sports are played throughout the world and have been documented in different forms throughout human cultures. Bodily practices such as dance offer opportunities for creative expression and joy but can also convey specific cultural meanings and histories. This unit deploys sports and bodily practices as a lens through which to understand contemporary issues in societies including race and racisms, class, inequalities, gender, and disabilities. Students are introduced to a range of resources relating to understanding the role of sports and bodily practices in contemporary cultures, including films, exhibitions, articles, and academic and popular books. Assessments encourage an engagement of the ways in which sports and bodily practices are entangled in our everyday lives and serve to reflect and refract key anthropological concerns. Students are enabled to take anthropology 'outside the classroom' to engage with real-world concerns through the analysis of bodily practices and sports.
This unit will develop students’ ability to engage in independent research while remaining supported through structured teaching and seminars. It will contribute to students’ understandings of the applicability of anthropological literature and approaches to contexts and topics outside of the University. Students will be equipped to identify topics for anthropological engagement and conduct critical and reflective reports and reviews. This unit may also support students to develop ideas for their dissertation projects, either through a focus on sports or bodily cultures specifically, or using the tools gained during the course to develop an independent project.
An overview of content
This unit draws together anthropological and archaeological literature on sports and bodily practices, and encourages students to deploy these in an analysis of contemporary discussions including race and racisms, gender, and accessibility. Content will include theoretical work on the body and embodiment (for e.g. Bourdieu, Butler, Jackson, Merleau-Ponty, Wacquant) and also literature related to sports, dance, and bodily cultures across human societies.
How will students, personally, be different as a result of the unit
This unit offers students an opportunity to begin to see the world as anthropologists and archaeologists, and they will be supported to develop independent lines of inquiry through engagement with primary research. It will enable students to begin more independent research in preparation for their dissertations, through a topic that is accessible to all and approachable in their daily lives. Sports and bodily practices are ubiquitous across media landscapes, family and friends, and personal lives, and therefore offer an important lens through which students can energise learning outcomes and elements of core academic knowledge from existing units.
By the end of this unit, successful students will be able to:
Teaching methods will consist of: weekly thematic lectures and four interactive 2 hour playshops/workshops.
The ‘playshops’ will be opportunities for students to consider sports and bodily practices in more informal spaces and foregrounds the importance of practically applying learning gained during the course of students’ programmes of study. This unit’s teaching and learning methods support and empower students to produce individual work on topics of interest, which complement learning from other units.
The formative exercise involves the application of students’ skills to an independent project and facilitates peer-assisted learning.
Tasks which help you learn and prepare you for summative tasks (formative):
Mini-presentation of an observed or participated bodily expression or sports event (6 min, filmed or in person). Students will deliver and receive peer-to-peer feedback. This may form the basis of their final summative analysis, subject to further development and refining.
Tasks which count towards your unit mark (summative):
Briefing, 500 words (30%), [ILOs 1, 2, 4]
A public/industry-facing style ‘briefing’ on an on-going discussion around a sport or body culture
Written analysis, 2500 words (70%), [ILOs 2,3,4]
A written analysis of a sports event or bodily expression (observed or participated)
When assessment doesn’t go to plan
When required by the Board of Examiners, you will normally complete reassessments in the same formats as those outlined above. However, the Board reserves the right to modify the form or number of reassessments required. Details of reassessments are normally confirmed by the School shortly after the notification of your results at the end of the academic year.
If this unit has a Resource List, you will normally find a link to it in the Blackboard area for the unit. Sometimes there will be a separate link for each weekly topic.
If you are unable to access a list through Blackboard, you can also find it via the Resource Lists homepage. Search for the list by the unit name or code (e.g. ARCH20072).
How much time the unit requires
Each credit equates to 10 hours of total student input. For example a 20 credit unit will take you 200 hours
of study to complete. Your total learning time is made up of contact time, directed learning tasks,
independent learning and assessment activity.
See the University Workload statement relating to this unit for more information.
Assessment
The Board of Examiners will consider all cases where students have failed or not completed the assessments required for credit.
The Board considers each student's outcomes across all the units which contribute to each year's programme of study. For appropriate assessments, if you have self-certificated your absence, you will normally be required to complete it the next time it runs (for assessments at the end of TB1 and TB2 this is usually in the next re-assessment period).
The Board of Examiners will take into account any exceptional circumstances and operates
within the Regulations and Code of Practice for Taught Programmes.
