Sports Studies
The Sports Studies minor offers students a dynamic, interdisciplinary exploration of sport as a powerful lens for understanding identity, politics, history, and culture.
Through critical analysis, leadership development, and immersive experiences, the Sports Studies minor will help students to gain the skills necessary to become changemakers in the sports industry. With access to nationally recognized speakers and partnerships with Los Angeles sports organizations, the program connects classroom learning to real-world impact. Drawing on the expertise of faculty and professional staff across BCLA and the broader campus, the minor offers a truly interdisciplinary curriculum, with courses spanning multiple BCLA Departments as well as the College of Communication and Fine Arts and the College of Business Administration, allowing students to examine sport from multiple perspectives. A collaboration with the Department of Athletics further enhances the program by providing mentorship, experiential opportunities, and professional preparation to help students forge their own pathways in the evolving world of sport.
Program Requirements
The Sports Studies minor includes two required courses: Sport, Race, and Society (CLST 1300) and Portfolio Project (CLST 5300). An additional three elective courses are required and students can choose from: Sports Law* (BLAW 4230), Histories of Race and Sport (CLST 3362), For the Love of the Game* (CMST 3630), Media Sport Culture Ethics (CMST 3855), Sports Economics* (ECON 3580), Sports Journalism* (JOUR 4471), Sports Marketing* (MRKT 4573), or Sociology of Sport (SOCL 3110).
*Elective Courses that require prerequisites.
Learning Outcomes
- Enhance Critical Thinking: Students should know how to critically examine identities, politics, histories, and cultures in sports and question assumptions and challenge dominant narratives.
- Racial Dynamics in Sports: Students should be able to understand how sports influence and are influenced by historical and contemporary racial formations, analyzing power dynamics and intersectional impacts.
- Intersectional Analysis: Students should be able to apply intersectional and interdisciplinary perspectives and methodologies to analyze how race, ethnicity, gender, sex, class, and nation intersect within global sports contexts.
- Critical Paradigm of Sport: Students should value the critical paradigm of sport, recognizing both its potential for knowledge production and its inherent challenges as a site of knowledge production.
Faculty
Priscilla Leiva
Director of the Sports Studies Minor
Department of Chicana/o and Latina/o Studies
ExpertFile Profile Email Prof. Leiva