Studies in Film, Media, and Visual Culture (305-0-1)

Topic

Football in the Global South: Postcoloniality, Ide

Instructors

Youssef Boucetta

Meeting Info

University Library 3370: Tues, Thurs 3:30PM - 4:50PM

Overview of class

In 2022, Morocco became the first African and Arab nation to reach the semi-finals of the World Cup in Qatar. Taking the 2022 World Cup campaign as a point of departure for this seminar we will take a prismatic look at the various stakes concentrated in the presence of the sport in Morocco. We will reflect first on questions of formation of national identity through football before examining how football can function at once as an important vector of popular expression as well as solidarity and, simultaneously, how it is used by the state as a tool for governance and geopolitical power. Using a variety of media drawn from television, film, newspapers, digital media, photography and more, we will break down questions of identity pertinent to the consolidation of symbolic value around the national team and individual players, while looking at the material and political consequences the sport brings about. Though we will use Moroccan football as a common prism, perspectives from around the world will be welcome in assignments. This course will include artistic and scholarly works by Hicham Lasri, Sonia Terrab, Achille Mbembe, Benedict Anderson, Partha Chatterjee, Eduardo Galeano, and more.

Class Attributes

Literature and Arts Foundational Discipline
Literature & Fine Arts Distro Area