Author: galarza1

FILM: The 90th Minute and the future of WPS

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On Wednesday, December 5, FSF members met in East Lansing and online to discuss Jun Stinson’s documentary film The 90th Minute. We were joined by Gwen Oxenham, the producer of Pelada and author of Finding the Game: Three Years, Twenty-five Countries, and the Search for Pickup Soccer.

Participants in the session listened to Peter Alegi’s interview with Jun and Gwen’s reflections on the film, as well as her perspective on women’s professional soccer. Discussion topics also included international comparisons; salary inequities; limited media coverage; fan loyalty and other significant challenges facing the new league to launch in the U.S. in early 2013.

Participants: Melissa Forbis, David Kilpatrick, Alon Raab, Alex Galarza, Peter Alegi, Alejandro Gonzalez, Chipande Hikabwa, Alexander Kitroeff, Benjamin Dettmar, and Lindsay Krasnoff.

Listen to the audio from the session here. (For educational/personal use only.)

Aesthetics, Morality, and Arsenal

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PhilosophyFSF members met on November 7 to discuss a selection of chapters from Ted Richards’s edited volume, Soccer and Philosophy: Beautiful Thoughts on the Beautiful Game.

The conversation began with Richards discussing the book’s genesis and quickly moved into exploring the potential of aesthetics and morality on the field to speak to deeper issues in philosophy and the human condition. Arsene Wenger’s Arsenal, the topic of FSF member David Kilpatrick’s chapter in the volume, served as a useful example for participants to discuss style, Nietzsche, and economics.

Participants: Ted Richards, David Kilpatrick, David Roberts, Christoph Wagner, Andrew Guest, Laurent Dubois, Peter Alegi, Alex Galarza

Unfortunately, due to technical issues, we were unable to record the session.

David Goldblatt: The Ball is Round (Part 2) and Beyond

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Author, scholar, and journalist David Goldblatt became the second FSF author to visit Michigan State University in person (March 15-16). We had a lively discussion on the second half of his sacred text of football history: The Ball is Round. and learned more about David’s new project on the cultural politics of football in Britain since 1989.

Participants included: Alejandro Gonzales, Hikabwa Chipande, Andrew Guest, Ben Dettmar, Aaron Passman, Alex Galarza and Peter Alegi (all with the author in East Lansing), and David Kilpatrick, Ben Healy, Brenda Elsey, Corry Cropper, and Alon Raab via Skype.

Listen to the audio recording here (for educational/personal use only).

[Goldblatt’s talk on March 15, 2012, in the MSU Department of History on football, Britishness, and Englishness is available here.]

FSF March – David Goldblatt's The Ball is Round (Part 2)

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A reminder that our next session will take place on March 16, 2pm EST. David Goldblatt will join us in East Lansing to discuss the second half of his book, The Ball is Round. Our first session left off at page 479, so anything after that is fair game. A recording of our last discussion centered on the first half of the book can be found here. As always, please RSVP by sending me an email (galarza1 [AT] msu. [DOT] edu) with your Skype name so that I can include you on the call.

For the curious, David also has a fantastic BBC Audio doc series “The Power and the Passion” and LSE Talk “This Sporting Planet: Global Sport and Global Capitalism”

“We Had it All” — Ray Hudson and "Once in a Lifetime"

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once-in-a-lifetimeProfessional soccer in the U.S.A. took center stage at FSF on February 24. Ray Hudson dubbed us the “football think-tank” and answered questions in the inimitable style he brings to broadcasting a Clásico on GolTV. Using the documentary film Once in a Lifetime: The Extraordinary Story of the New York Cosmos, FSF discussed Cosmos and the NASL, as well as the representation and construction of history on film. “We had it all, man!” said Hudson looking back fondly to his playing days with the Ft. Lauderdale Strikers.

Steven Apostolov, David Kilpatrick, Ben Healy, Melissa Forbis, Corry Cropper, Peter Alegi, Ben Dettmar, Hikabwa Chipande, and Alex Galarza participated in the session.

The audio recording of the conversation is here. (For educational/personal use only.)

One more thing: our next online session is on March 16, 2pm EST. Author David Goldblatt will be at Michigan State University in East Lansing to discuss the second half of his book, The Ball is Round. FSF’s discussion of the first installment is here.

FSF February 24 2pm – Once in a Lifetime

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Our next session is less than a month away. Ray Hudson will be joining us to discuss the film Once in a Lifetime: The Extraordinary Story of the New York Cosmos. The session will be held on Friday, February 24, at 2pm Eastern Time. The film will be an excellent launching point to discuss not just the Cosmos and NASL, but also the representation and construction of sport history on film.
 
Clive Toye’s book, A Kick in the Grass, also discusses the history of the NASL and would be worth perusing before the session. I would also remind everyone that we are building a film repository. This project can be a great success with the group’s contributions in the form of annotations and adding titles. As always, please RSVP asap to be included in the Skype conversation.

Syllabi for "Soccer in the Classroom" Session

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Our panelists for Wednesday’s “Soccer in the Classroom” session (Nov. 9, 2pm EST) have generously shared their syllabi with the group. Looking forward to our discussion!

FSF November – Football in the Classroom

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Please join us for the Football Scholars Forum session on Soccer in the Classroom, Wednesday, November 9, at 2pm Eastern Time. Peter Alegi, Alon Raab, Tom McCabe, Steven Apostolov, and Sean Jacobs will each make 5 minute presentations on their courses to jump start a discussion about syllabi, sources, readings, pedagogy, and how to include a unit/section/lecture on soccer in  humanities or social science courses. We’re using the FSF website to pre-circulate course designs and syllabi, so please send me any syllabi or reading lists you would like to share to: galarza1@msu.edu

Some questions to spark discussion: (1) How can teaching a course or unit on soccer expand or contribute to disciplinary knowledge? (2) What are the challenges and opportunities of teaching a fútbol class filled with everyone from fantasy soccer geeks to soccer neophytes? (3) How can students apply what they learn in a soccer course outside the classroom?

As always, please RSVP if you plan on attending via Skype (provide your username). Soccer in the Classroom promises to be one of our most exciting and productive, so don’t miss out.

In other news, FSF will be included in a poster session at HASTAC 2011, a conference on digital scholarly communication hosted at the University of Michigan in December. We are very excited to share our experiences with FSF at the conference; thanks to everyone who has helped us grow and learn!

¡Adelante! Fútbol and Politics in Chile

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elseybookIn a vibrant opening to the 2011-12 FSF season, we discussed Brenda Elsey’s book Citizens and Sportsmen.  Brenda made FSF history by being the first author to visit Michigan State University in person, for which she received a stylish FSF t-shirt and a dinner in her honor! Situating her study in the context of Latin American historiography’s concerns with the question of how democratic Chile was before the 1973 coup, Elsey uses football to convincingly argue that the country was strongly democratic before Pinochet’s rise to power.  The group explored topics such as sources and methodology; gender, class and race; the 1962 World Cup; football clubs as conduits for political mobilization; and the secularization of public space. The participants were: Alon Raab, Chris Gaffney, David Kilpatrick, Ingrid Bolivar, Brenda Elsey, Alex Galarza, and Peter Alegi.

Unfortunately, the audio from the session is flawed, but is nevertheless available here.

On Thursday (9/22), Brenda gave a campus talk introducing her book on Chilean football and politics. The next day she attended a grad seminar where we discussed her article from the Journal of Social History, “The Independent Republic of Football: The Politics of Neighborhood Clubs in Santiago, Chile, 1948-1960.

Our next session on Wednesday, November 9th will focus on football in the classroom. Peter Alegi, Tom McCabe, Steven Apostolov, and Alon Raab will lead the discussion. This will be an excellent opportunity to exchange syllabi, sources, reading lists, and teaching perspectives. Our discussion will not necessarily center on soccer-specific courses; if you would like to include a unit/section/lecture on soccer in your humanities or social science course, be sure to join the discussion.

Fall 2011 Lineup

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The schedule page has been updated with our new fall schedule, our fourth semester of FSF sessions! On Friday, September 23, at 3pm EDT we will be discussing Brenda Elsey’s Citizens and Sportsmen: Fútbol and Politics in Twentieth-Century Chile. Dr. Elsey will visit Michigan State on September 22-23 to give a public lecture and host a seminar for graduate students.

On November 9, FSF will host a session on “Soccer in the Classroom.” Peter Alegi, Tom McCabe, Steven Apostolov, and Alon Raab will lead the discussion. This will be an excellent opportunity to exchange syllabi, sources, reading lists, and teaching perspectives. Our discussion will not necessarily center on soccer-specific courses; if you would like to include a unit/section/lecture on soccer in your humanities or social science course, be sure to join the discussion.