Just earlier than the 2026 Winter Olympics started in Italy, Emory College college students packed right into a White Hall lecture room to review and talk about how bigotry and nationalism collided throughout the 1936 Games in Berlin.
They already knew Jesse Owens had turn out to be a logo of American greatness along with his dominance in observe and discipline occasions, difficult then-German Chancellor Adolf Hitler’s imaginative and prescient of Aryan superiority. What they discovered was the manner Black athletes had traditionally used the world’s most outstanding sporting phases to claim equality via the sheer drive of their efficiency.
Welcome to “Sports, Power and Society,” an interdisciplinary course that analyzes how sports intersect with economics, trend, world power, politics, race and city planning.
Co-developed by Emory College professors Karida Brown and Carl Suddler, the course builds on distinguished sociologist and civil rights icon Harry Edwards’ “Last Lectures” sequence.
Students meet twice every week. The first time, they watch one of Edwards’ 12 recorded lectures, which cowl the historic forces which have formed the world of sports from the Civil War to modern-day. The second time, members talk about the lectures, further readings and the “Footwork” programming on campus in anticipation of Atlanta internet hosting World Cup matches this summer time.
Emory is one of only a handful of universities with entry to Edwards’ lectures, and college students are making the most of the immersive coursework and discussions. Cross-listed in African American research, historical past and sociology, the class supplied 100 seats. Only three went unfilled.
“Even with such a large class, we have the eagerness to be as hands-on as possible,” says Suddler, who’s a historian. “You don’t have to be a fan to realize how much sport is a microcosm of our broader society.”
First-year pupil Aduwa Ajie — who wouldn’t describe herself as a sports fan — determined to take the class after taking Suddler’s fall semester class on city historical past, the place he mentioned the displacement of traditionally Black neighborhoods for the development of Atlanta’s Mercedes-Benz Stadium.
As an Atlanta native, Ajie thought studying extra about that improvement can be her favourite half of “Sports, Power and Society.” Instead, it’s been studying about “jockey syndrome,” the reflex by white-dominated sports institutions to sabotage Black athletes. It attracts its title from the systemic exclusion that ended a historical past of Black jockeys as the most outstanding riders in Thoroughbred racing.
“It’s a world I never even imagined before this class, but now I can’t unsee it,” says Ajie, who plans to pursue a enterprise main and an funding profession. “I want to internalize what I am learning so I can be a different kind of business leader.”
Senior Ben Pearce, a double main in sociology and enterprise, is absolutely immersed in the world of sports. A standout guard on the Emory males’s basketball crew, he served as the college’s sole consultant to the 2024 NIL Summit, the skilled improvement convention to assist pupil athletes navigate the Name, Image, Likeness (NIL) coverage, which permits them to be compensated for his or her private model.
Pearce has led the Emory Sports Business Association since his sophomore 12 months and hopes to safe an company or league job in the NBA after he graduates, ultimately parlaying his background and expertise into work as a sports agent.
First, although, he plans to play professionally abroad, the place he’s desirous to see how sports replicate and affect power dynamics in completely different components of the world.
“When you recognize that sports have mirrored and shaped societal trends for over a century, it reframes them as more than entertainment,” Pearce says. “Global events like the World Cup influence culture, politics and local identity, even here in Atlanta, which we will see this summer. That perspective pushes us to think about sports as a real site of power, not just play or competition.”
Brown, a sociologist whose resume features a stint working in the entrance workplace of the L.A. Lakers, is very desirous to elevate the veil on sports careers, which span past athletes and coaches to incorporate roles in crew operations, sports advertising and marketing, trainers, information analytics, occasion coordinators and extra.
She is bringing in artists, entrepreneurs and 11-time Emmy Award-winning documentarian Jonathan Hock, who produced Edwards’ lectures, to share potential avenues to the myriad careers obtainable in the trade.
Between these visits, journeys to Footwork and different occasions exterior the classroom, Brown hopes to emphasise her scholarly analysis displaying how sports can transcend race, age, nationality and extra to carry individuals collectively.
“When you’re in the stadium, you are just a fan,” Brown says, including that Atlanta provides to the dialog as one of solely two American cities, together with Los Angeles, to have hosted each the Olympics and the World Cup.
“We want to prepare our students to think about Atlanta as a living classroom,” she provides. “L.A. hosted the Olympics in 1984 and will do so again in 2028, and Atlanta hosted the 1996 Olympics and will host the 2026 World Cup. That kind of global stage gives students a powerful opportunity to understand how sports shape our lives every day.”