On Location 2027

 AMCS 4800/5790

This interdisciplinary summer seminar probes the impact of American sports on broader discourses concerning politics, the economy, nationhood, and identity formation through the lens of Los Angeles.  

Building on the instructors’ past research into the history of sports, race, and the built environment in St. Louis, this course will illuminate the realities of access and inequity in the sporting landscape of then United States’ second-largest city, and imagine just and equitable futures. 

We will consider: 

What can we learn about Los Angeles from its playgrounds and ballparks? 

What can the history of Chavez Ravine teach us about the Dodgers, labor, and immigration? 

How does the story of Jackie Robinson illuminate the politics of Pasadena and UCLA? 

How will the LA Coliseum resonate during the 2028 Olympics? 

How are Southern California’s soccer-loving queer communities of color navigating the present moment?  

Students will engage a range of spatial and visual research methodologies including site visits, observational drawing, zines, and photography. By engaging a fuller spectrum of sensory experience than traditional text-centric research, we seek to expand our understanding of the possibilities of knowledge production and create extended imaginaries for the study of sport and identity. 

This summer travel seminar will take place in multiple locations. This course is designed to be an intensive immersion experience, with the expectation that you are engaged with the course and the material for the full day from May 24th to June 8th 2027.  

Application window opens February 2nd, 2027.