Through the prisms of international relations, social history, economics, anthropology, cultural studies, philosophy, science, and literature, EPIIC will provide a critical, comparative insight into sport and international athletic competition.

The Sydney 2000 Olympic games will convene against the backdrop of ongoing revelations of International Olympic Committee political in-fighting and corruption. Historic adversaries -- Japan and Korea -- will co-host the 2002 World Cup soccer finals. In Cuba, Castro's government faces the continuing defection of some of its most prominent athletes. South Africa has ordered the integration of its rugby teams. In the U.S., controversy over the impact of Title IX persists in the aftermath of the U.S. Women's Team World Cup victory. What is the historical interplay of ideology, politics, and athletics? In the context of the political use and abuse of sport, what are the relationships between sport and foreign and domestic policies, from ping-pong diplomacy in China to the U.S. boycott of the 1980 Moscow Olympics, from the recent U.S.-Iran wrestling competition to the 1972 massacre of Israeli athletes at the Munich Olympics?

This course also will explore sport in the context of conflict, conflict resolution, and social integration. How do sports influence, and how are they influenced by, identity, nationalism, class, race, ethnicity, gender, and religion? EPIIC will consider the politics of race and the use of sport as racial competition, from South Africa to the Caribbean. Among the course's other concerns will be: the global economics of sport, including monopoly capitalism, international marketing, labor relations, gambling, and corruption; athletic talent migration; the potential for enhancement or "dehumanization" through genetic engineering and hormonal manipulation; the changing ethics of competition; the global diffusion of Western modern sports and the impact on indigenous traditions, such as Afghan buzkashi and Nuban wrestling; violence; and the roles of media and popular culture.