Lars Dzikus

Case studies of collegiate sport chaplains.

The appointment of sport chaplains in public colleges or universities can be controversial and contested as in a recent case at Iowa State University. Some scholarly attention has been paid to the relationship between sport and religion, but studies on sport chaplains are just recently emerging. Through textual analysis of media coverage and promotional materials, this study examines how collegiate sport chaplains, their ministry organizations, and public universities navigate the competing interests of evangelical chaplains and state-funded institutions. The study explores the roles and responsibilities of collegiate sport chaplains at two public universities (University of Tennessee and Auburn University). It also provides a brief review of the historical context of muscular Christianity for the discussion of collegiate sport chaplaincy.

Sport labour migration: understanding leisure activities of American professional basketball players abroad

This study used insights from leisure constraint theory as sensitising concepts to generate new insights on the experiences of international sport labour migrants, thus contributing to research on ‘the leisure-globalisation nexus’. We examined empirical data from broader qualitative research on the sport labour migration of American basketball players, specifically their leisure activities outside of the basketball arena. We interviewed a total of 12 participants who had played in 21 countries, including 15 European. Major themes related to leisure experiences were technology, food consumption, travel and relationships. We discussed those themes in relation to intrapersonal, interpersonal and structural constraints. Examples illustrated the interplay between the three dimensions of the leisure constraint model. Findings supported a multidirectional or cyclical relationship between all three parts. We located the participants of this study within previously established typologies of sport labour migrants and provided suggestions for future research.

Kinesiology Students’ Perceptions of Ambivalent Sexism

The culture of sport has historically reinforced hegemonic notions of gender. Both intercollegiate and professional sports in the United States are male-dominated in employment numbers and leadership positions. This raises concerns about the professional work environment women will encounter in their careers. Thus, the purpose of this study was to examine perceptions of sexism among kinesiology students who will be entering the male-dominated sports workplace. The Ambivalent Sexism Inventory (ASI) was used to measure sexism (hostile and benevolent) among students enrolled in kinesiology-related majors at a large public university in the southeastern United States. Men scored significantly higher than women on both subscales. Undergraduate students also scored significantly higher than graduate students. Overall, the mean scores in this study were higher than those reported previously for other college student populations. The findings suggest considerable hostile and benevolent sexism among these students.

Virtual Patriot Games: American Football in The Times of London, 1888–1910

Abstract This study examines the American football press coverage in the Times of London from 1888 to November 1910. The time span covers the paper’s first mention of the game to the first game played in England. This period also coincides with increasing anxiety about the strength of the British Empire and unwanted American influences. During this time, athletic contests between the two nations turned into sites for the construction of national identities. Adapting the sport scholar Emma Poulton’s concept of ‘mediated patriot games’, the author argues that the American football coverage of the Times of London could be considered ‘virtual patriot games’, as the absence of domestic American football teams did not allow for direct competition. Two related narrative elements. The stories in the Times framed gridiron football as the pastime of the ‘other’, including translating rules and comparing the merits of rugby and American football. The reports also focused on the American game’s violence, confirming older traditions in British imaginations of America. Advancements in communication technologies, especially the telegraphic wire, were critical for the immediacy with which British readers consumed American sporting news. Contrary to current scholarship, British interpretations of American culture through gridiron football developed much earlier than the post-1970s information age.

Amerika: The Super Bowl and German Imagination

Abstract The Super Bowl has played a central role in the diffusion of American football in Germany, as interviews with the ‘founding fathers’ of ‘gridiron’ football clubs and analysis of German media accounts reveal. American football and the Super Bowl have also played an important role in the construction of traditional German Amerikabilder – images, ideas, and symbols associated with America. German media rarely covered American football until the late 1970s. At that time, brief highlight shows of the Super Bowl on German television and broadcasts on the American Forces Network significantly contributed to the diffusion of American football and the emergence of an American football league in Germany in the late 1970s. In the process of covering the Super Bowl, German journalists reproduced Germany’s double-headed Amerikabild: America as a model of modernity on the one hand, and as a violent, cultureless society on the other. The press further invoked historical clashes between German Kultur and the dreaded Zivilisation of the West. This exploration of the social processes surrounding the reception of the Super Bowl in Germany employs the theories of cultural globalization, migration, and electronic mediation developed by the anthropologist Arjun Appadurai to explain the complexities of contemporary global cultural flows.