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Competition Not Conflict

Courses

Upcoming Courses: Spring 2012

Sports Conflict & Sexual Politics Soccer & Sports Conflict History of Sports Conflict Intro to Sports Conflict Sports Negotiation
CRN: 32344 CRN: 36836 CRN: 36845 CRN: 37553 CRN: 32345
M, W 12:00-1:20 T, R 10:00-11:20 M, W 10:00-11:20 M, W 2:00-3:50 T, R 12:00-1:50
JAQ 101 JAQ 101 JAQ 101 ED 117 JAQ 101

Full Course Listings:

Introduction Courses:

  • Introduction to Sports Conflict (Winter), Professor Josh Gordon, 4 creditsThe purpose of this course is to understand and prevent sports conflict by developing core conflict management competencies through the study of theory and hands-on skill practice. The course will explore the various stakeholders (athletes, supporters, administrators, coaches) in athletics and their role in fostering healthy competition and mitigating destructive conflict.
  • Introduction into Conflict (Fall), Professor Tim Hicks, 4 credits

Theory Courses:

  • American Football and Conflict (Fall), Professor Ken Pendleton, 4 credits. The purpose of this course is to show how football has mirrored and helped shape American culture. From the sports evolution as an elite educational institution to a working class activity. The course explores how masculinity was reshaped by modern managerial techniques after World War II; as well as how standards for acceptable levels of violence have been scrutinized by social reformers from the beginning right through the present day.
  • Educational Theory in Sports (Summer), Professor Ken Pendleton, 4 credits
  • Ethics in Sports (Winter), Professor Ken Pendleton, 4 credits. This course will explore ethical and aesthetic questions about the role sport plays in contemporary society. We will examine practical issues such as performance enhancing drugs, problems that arise from commercialization, and the way youth sports is organized.
  • History and Culture of American Sports Conflict (Spring), Professor Ken Pendleton, 4 credits. This course will explore the status of sports, and the line between what passes for healthy competition as opposed to destructive conflict. This will be examined through the larger historical and cultural factors within the United States.
  • Soccer and Conflict, Professor Ken Pendleton, 4 credits. This course will explore how the history of soccer, the way it is both played and watched, speaks to deeper tensions within and among nations. We will start by focusing on the game’s English origins, how it spread around the world, and how other countries interpreted its meaning differently. We will also examine how the modern game has been shaped by commercialism; ask why it is the most popular sport in the world; and consider its failure and future in the United States.
  • Sports, Race, Ethnicity, & Culture in Sports (Winter), Professor Ken Pendleton, 4 credits. This course will explore how views on where to draw the line between healthy competition and conflict are effected by differing racial, ethnic, and cultural perspectives. We will spend a lot of time examining how various marginalized group, such as the Irish, Jews, and African-Americans, were integrated into the American mainstream. We will also focus on the roles that nationalism, colonialism, and gender have played in the evolution of sports.
  • Sports Conflict & Sexual Politics (Spring), Professor Peg Brand, 4 Credits. Sports conflict can surface within teams, extend to family members and friends, and operate within a general culture that exerts significant individual and societal pressures upon athletes. This course will define key concepts such as respect, fairness, equality, and justice in light of learned complex cultural dynamics that can often promote narrowly defined gendered roles of masculinity and femininity. We will look at the role of sexual politics in the history of recent sport, particularly as it functions in damaging and limiting ways. The goal is to learn how to understand, prevent, and resolve sports conflict that might arise because of sexual politics. “Sexual politics” encompasses issues of sex, gender, race, ethnicity, class, and disability. Students will learn to analyze contextualized gendered bodies in sports in order to (1) explore the positive impact of gendered awareness, (2) develop strategies for preventing and resolving conflict, and (3) learn how one’s own moral character and identity can develop and benefit from pursuing shared goals such as equality and justice, all toward the goal of happiness.

Skills Courses:

  • Sports Conflict Practicum (Fall & Spring), Professor Josh Gordon, 4 credits. This course provides students with an intensive 32-hr mediation training focused on sports conflict. Meets over two weekends and weekly for one hour labs to continue skill building and prepare students to serve as mediators for sports-related conflict at the University and in the community.
  • Sports Negotiation (Summer), Professor Josh Gordon, 4 credits. This course emphasizes negotiation theory and skills in the context of sports. We will use a number of hands-on simulations as well as traditional discussion, lecture, and video. The course will teach the fundamentals of negotiation and then examine negotiation between teammates, coaches, organizations, agents, and a number of other critical stakeholders.
  • Sports Mediation Click Here for course syllabus (Winter), Professor Josh Gordon, 4 credits. This course is an intensive skills-based course that will introduce theory but emphasize the development and practice of tangible skills and tools. This course satisfies the minimum certification standards for community mediation in Oregon.

Experience Courses:

  • Sports Conflict Practicum (Fall & Spring), Professor Josh Gordon, 4 credits. This course provides students with an intensive 32-hr mediation training focused on sports conflict. Meets over two weekends and weekly for one hour labs to continue skill building and prepare students to serve as mediators for sports-related conflict at the University and in the community.
  • Internship Students will work with CNC towards accomplishing a variety of projects for the program. Tasks carried out by student intern will vary.
  • Research Students will conduct research on the affects of sports conflict. Research will be conducted independently of all other CNC courses.

Coming Soon

Skills Course:

  • Dealing with an Angry Sports Public (TBA), Professor Josh Gordon, 4 credits

Interested in earning our Sports Conflict Management Certificate?