Sport, Media, and Culture (Minor)

Director:
Katherine Walden, American Studies  [kwalden@nd.edu]


The Sport, Media & Culture (SMAC) Minor invites students to examine how sport shapes culture, and how culture shapes sport. Learn to practice and analyze sport with an eye toward human dignity and the common good. Students from any school, college, or major are welcome to apply.
 

SMAC defines media broadly, from visual art and archives to data and digital storytelling. Working across film, journalism, radio, and emerging media, students examine how sport shapes and is shaped by cultural narratives and structures of power. Drawing on faculty across Arts & Letters and beyond, our courses engage critical questions of race, gender, sexuality, class, identity, and inequality.

SMAC is for students interested in:

  • interdisciplinary critical analysis
  • sports media, broadcasting and journalism
  • sports industry careers
  • coaching, education and community engagement
For more information, see smacminor.nd.edu.
SMAC 30103Sports and the Environment3
11–12 credit hours of electives11
SMAC 47909Capstone1
Total Hours15

SMAC students may choose their electives from a wide range of courses cross-listed with the minor. In addition to standard 3-credit academic courses, students may take up to 3 hours of community engagement (SSLP), CSC seminars, or internship for credit towards the minor. Depending on the student’s interest and course of study, the director may approve specific non-cross-listed courses to count towards the SMAC minor.

The required Capstone project, which asks students to synthesize and reflect upon their work within the minor in some public-facing way, gives students freedom to apply what they have learned according to their individual skills, interests, and professional goals. Projects may include exhibits or live presentations of research, podcasts, videos, print journalism, TED talks, or other forms of public programming.