“I Can Study That?!”: The Sport Studies Major and Minor at the University of Iowa

The Major and Minor

This week’s featured program is the Sport Studies Major and Minor at the University of Iowa, where it is administered by the Department of American Studies. From the website:

Sport studies examines the meaning, history, and culture of sport. Course work provides students with the critical skills necessary to understand sport’s relationship to media, economics, politics, and education. A focus on race, class, and gender in sport is central to the major.

The sport studies major provides an excellent basis for pursuing careers in sports journalism, sports broadcasting, sports management, sports information, and coaching.

Our courses lay a solid foundation for students who want to pursue a graduate degree or combine their sport studies with an emphasis on journalism, American studies, business, history, women’s studies, African American studies, or sociology. 

Students enrolled in the major take two foundation courses (Understanding American Cultures, Inequality in American Sport), choose one course from each of four required core content areas (Diversity in Sport, International Dimensions, Contemporary Sport in America, and History of Sport and Leisure in America), take twelve semester hours of electives, and complete an outside concentration area or minor. The minor in Sport Studies requires fifteen credit hours of coursework. 

Two Interesting Courses

SPST:2170 Sport and Globalization

Sport as both a global and local phenomenon; influence of global economic, political, and cultural forces on local sporting expressions, experiences, and identities; global sporting cultures from cricket to capoeira; global sporting spectacles from the Olympics and Paralympics to the FIFA World Cup; global sporting celebrities and athlete migrants from Maria Sharapova and Christiano Rinaldo to Yao Ming and Dominican Republic baseball; global sporting production, consumption, and development from global labor and environmental concerns to sport for development and peace.

SPST:3182 Sport, Scandal, and Strategic Communication in Media

Use of sport scandal to consider relationship between sport and media in American and global popular culture; broad range of case studies used to consider what constitutes a sport scandal, how this definition shifts in different circumstances; crucial roles media play in creating, communicating, and diffusing these crises; how phenomenon of sports scandal has intensified along with emergence of cable television, internet, and social media. 

Five Possible Complementary Majors/Minors at the University of Iowa

• • American Studies Major or Minor
  • Business Major or Minor
  • Communication Studies Major or Minor
  • Health and Human Physiology Major 
  • Sport and Recreation Management Major or Minor

Unique Opportunities within the Major/Minor

Interested students can qualify for coaching endorsement from the state of Iowa:

If you’re interested in coaching, you’ll be able to complete additional course work that will qualify you for coaching endorsement from the state of Iowa. Instead of completing an outside specialization area, you’ll complete the following courses:

• • • Human Anatomy
    • Basic Athletic Training
    • Human Growth and Motor Development
    • Theory and Ethics of Coaching

Once you complete the coaching authorization requirements, you’ll need to apply to the Iowa Board of Educational Examiners. 

Sample Similar Programs

• • Penn State University: Sport Studies Minor
  • Saint Anselm College: Sports Studies Minor
  • SUNY Cortland: Sport Studies Major and Minor