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Abstract Header

Finding Hope at the Arena: A Performance Studies Approach to Sport

Mariani, Jarod Michael
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1719830975333307

Abstract Details

2024, Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), Bowling Green State University, Theatre.
Over the past decade, especially in the United States, there has been a significant increase in what has commonly come to be known as athlete activism. Examples of this phenomenon include such moments as Colin Kaepernick’s anthem protest in the National Football League (NFL) and the campaign for pay equality undertaken by the United States Women’s National Team (USWNT). Though these examples, and many others like them, have affected important and tangible social change, there are many in the United States who claim that the practice of sport activism only serves to unnecessarily politicize the realm of sport. Opponents of sport activism often argue that sport should be kept separated from more serious matters such as pressing social and political issues. However, this argument is predicated on the assumption that sport is inherently apolitical or that it somehow exists independently of societal structures, which is demonstrably false. In “Finding Hope at the Arena: A Performance Studies Approach to Sport,” I make use of performance studies frameworks to investigate sport as a meaning-making mode of live performance with utopian potentiality. Using performance scholar Jill Dolan’s theorization of the utopian performative as a theoretical framework, I examine several key moments and eras in United States sport history to interrogate the notion that sport is, or ever has been, separate from social and political issues. Through archival and performance analysis methods of research, I interrogate the ways in which sport, as a genre of live performance, produces myriad utopian visions of the country that often serve to uphold or critique the dominant social order. Moreover, I imagine this study as a step towards what I call a model of utopian sport spectatorship. Utopian sport spectatorship facilitates a form of engagement with sport similar to that of a theatrical production. In this model of spectatorship, participants, both those involved in the aspects of athletic competition and those who spectate the events, are motivated to celebrate the creativity and theatricality of sport performances while also recognizing and actively questioning the social and political parameters within which these performances take place.
Angela Ahlgren (Committee Chair)
Heidi Nees (Committee Member)
Jonathan Chambers (Committee Member)
Amilcar Challu (Committee Member)
211 p.
American History; Performing Arts; Social Structure; Sociology; Theater
Theatre; Performance Studies; Utopia; Dystopia; Sport; Physical Culture; Football; Basketball; Bodybuilding; Athlete Activism; Colin Kaepernick; Charles Atlas; Allen Iverson; Michael Jordan; Colossal; Andrew Hinderaker;

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Mariani, J. M. (2024). Finding Hope at the Arena: A Performance Studies Approach to Sport [Doctoral dissertation, Bowling Green State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1719830975333307

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Mariani, Jarod. Finding Hope at the Arena: A Performance Studies Approach to Sport. 2024. Bowling Green State University, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1719830975333307.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Mariani, Jarod. "Finding Hope at the Arena: A Performance Studies Approach to Sport." Doctoral dissertation, Bowling Green State University, 2024. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1719830975333307

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

bgsu1719830975333307
122
© 2024, all rights reserved.
This open access ETD is published by Bowling Green State University and OhioLINK.