Schedule, readings & discussion prompts 

WEEK 1. INTRODUCTION
Thursday, Jan. 22
What we will do in class: Discuss our own fandom and what makes us fans, review syllabus and course policies.
What is due next class?
READ:
· "Keeping the Faith: The Elementary Forms of Sports Life" in The Power of Sports: Media and Spectacle in American Culture by Michael Serazio
DISCUSSION POINTS: 
  • How did sports and religion become intertwined?
  • Are they still today?

WEEK 2. WHY ARE WE SPORTS FANS?
 Tuesday, Jan 27 
What we will do in class: Discuss what makes fandom different, plan for the rest of the course
What is due next class?
READ:  DISCUSSION POINTS:
  • Why do humans become sports fans? 
  • Wann writes of four "individual needs" and of four "societal needs" sport fandom satisfies. Jot down how you have engaged personally and as a member of society in sport (or other) fandom to satisfy each of these needs. Be read to talk about them.
Thursday, Jan. 29
What we will do in class: Discuss Wann. 
What is due next class? 
READ: DISCUSSION POINTS: 
  • What happened in the Dartmouth-Princeton game? 
  • What is real and does it matter? 
  • What do we get from our favorite teams' success? 
  • Defend the use of "we" as fans when referring to favorite teams. What about "they?" Are there consequences of “we/they?”
 
WEEK 3. EARLY THEORIES OF SPORTS FANDOM
Tuesday, Feb. 3
What we will do in class: Watch video clips and discuss “They Saw a Game.” Then talk about "we/them" and BIRGing.
What is due next class: 
READ:
"Die-Hard and Fair-Weather Fans: Effects of Identification on BIRGing and CORFing Tendencies" by Daniel L. Wann & Nyla R. Branscombe 
"The Process of Becoming a Sports Fan: The Psychological Continuum Model" by D.L. Wann & Jeffrey D. James
DISCUSSION POINTS:
  • Describe the PCM in layman's terms
  • What are the four stages of connection and how do they apply to you personally? 
Thursday, Feb. 5 
What we will do in class: Discuss the PCM and "connection." 
What is due next class: 
"Die-Hard and Fair-Weather Fans: Effects of Identification on BIRGing and CORFing Tendencies" by Daniel L. Wann & Nyla R. Branscombe 
"The Process of Becoming a Sports Fan: The Psychological Continuum Model" by D.L. Wann & Jeffrey D. James
DISCUSSION POINTS:​
  • Watch the Super Bowl!  Take some notes on how people express and how they feel about their fandom AND their "identity." This does not just apply to Patriots' and Seahakws' fans, either. It might also apply to Bad Bunny fans, fans of Donald Trump, fans of the commercials or even of football itself. USE THE READINGS as your guide -- how are they "connecting?" How are YOU (and/or society) engaging with the personal and societal needs? is anyone BIRGing or CORFing? 

WEEK 4. MOTIVATIONS OF FANS & IS IT JUST ABOUT SPORTS?
​Tuesday, Feb 10
What we will do in class: Discuss Super Bowl and everything above. 
What is due next class:
READ
"Points of Attachment" by D.L. Wann & Jeffrey D. James
"Motivation and Sport Fandom" by D.L. Wann & Jeffrey D. James
Thursday, Feb. 12
What we will do in class: Discuss points of attachment and motivation; Introduce prompt for Paper #1.
​No new readings
DISCUSSION POINTS
  • ​Think about the "Attachment" and "Allegiance" stages of fandom. With those in mind, what are your points of attachment?
  • Next, we used religion as a comparative point of discussion on Tuesday. What are the points of attachment in your religion? How are they similar to/different from sports fandom? (In religion, are there "environmental origins?" "Rival salience?") 
  • New motives are introduced -- eight of them. How do these eight motives compare to the eight societal/individual "needs" Wann introduced in an earlier reading? Are motives and needs the same thing? Explain.

WEEK 5.
Tuesday, Feb. 17
What we will do in class: Discuss the Wann & James readings, talk about your points of attachment. Introduce the paper/assignment prompt.
What is due next class: Have the idea for your assignment formulated -- the way you will present it and the basic idea of it. 

Thursday, Feb. 19
What we will do in class: Workshop the assignment.

WEEK 6. NO CLASSES - BLIZZARD 2026

WEEK 7.  IDENTITY THEORY AND SPORTS FANDOM
Tuesday, March 3
What we will do in class: Discuss U.S. Hockey controversy, media response and our reactions
What is due next class: 
READ
(read this first; it's boring, but it'll pay off!) "Identity Theory and Social ldentity Theory" by Jan  E. Stets & Peter J. Burke (2000) 
"Mr. and Mrs. Seahawk: True-Blue fans" by Molly Yanity (2006)
"Psyched Up: Inside the weird minds of Eagles' fans" by Sandy Hingston (2023)
DISCUSSION POINTS
  • Is being a fan an identity or a social identity? Is it both? How and why? 
  • In the Seahawks and Eagles reading, where do you see "identity" and where do you see "social identity" playing out?

Thursday, March 5 
What we will do in class: Class will be held via Zoom (link here)  Be prepared to participate.
What is due next class:  
Read
"Performative Sport Fandom: An approach to retheorizing sport fans" by Annie Osborne & Danielle Coombs (2013)  -- if you can't access this by simply clicking the link, you can access it by going into the URI library site and pulling it up.
"Examining soccer fan performances through performative sport fandom theory: how fans of the Spurs perform their fandom" by Zachary Humphries & Jake Andrew Kucek (2019)
DISCUSSION POINTS
  • The theory of "performative sport fandom" uses social identity theory, but goes farther in a bit of a different direction. Why do the creators of this theory think social identity theory isn't enough? How does the theory differ at its core? 
  • In the Tottenham Hotspurs piece, the authors show how Spurs fans perform their fandom. How do fans of your favorite teams perform their fandom and how do those performances differ from other fanbases? 

WEEK 8.
Tuesday, March 10 
What we will do in class: Class will be held via Zoom (link here)  Be prepared to participate.
What is due next class:  
Read
"Performative Sport Fandom: An approach to retheorizing sport fans" by Annie Osborne & Danielle Coombs (2013)  -- if you can't access this by simply clicking the link, you can access it by going into the URI library site and pulling it up.
"Examining soccer fan performances through performative sport fandom theory: how fans of the Spurs perform their fandom" by Zachary Humphries & Jake Andrew Kucek (2019)
DISCUSSION POINTS
  • The theory of "performative sport fandom" uses social identity theory, but goes farther in a bit of a different direction. Why do the creators of this theory think social identity theory isn't enough? How does the theory differ at its core? 
  • In the Tottenham Hotspurs piece, the authors show how Spurs fans perform their fandom. How do fans of your favorite teams perform their fandom and how do those performances differ from other fanbases? 

WEEK 9.  NO CLASSES
SPRING BREAK

WEEK 10. PERFORMATIVE SPORT FANDOM
Tuesday, March 25
What we will do in class: Talk about PSF and fill out women's brackets. Where is your fandom when it comes to this event? The teams? The players?
Thursday, March 27
What we will do in class:  GUEST SPEAKER Dr. Danielle S. Coombs, one of the scholars who conceptualized PSF. 
​
WEEK 11. PERFORMATIVE SPORT FANDOM
Tuesday, March 31
What we will do in class: Talk about Coombs' visit to class and discuss women's brackets. Where is your fandom when it comes to this event? The teams? The players? 
What is due next class:  
Read Chapter 3 of "Female Fans of the NFL" by Osborne & Coombs (2015) 
DISCUSSION POINTS
  • What are the factors that affect performances of fandom? 
  • Identify where your fandom is situated when you are in different social situations? Is your fandom situated differently from watching your favorite team with your friends than it is, for example, watching the women's basketball tournament at my insistence? Explain. 

Thursday, April 2
What we will do in class: 
Discuss three scenarios involving Coombs' theory of PSF as RELATIONAL, CONTEXTUAL & NEGOTIABLE:
1.) You are at a baseball game with your college friends and you learn from an alert on your phone that the U.S. has invaded Greenland. What happens and how do you react?
2.) Your favorite NBA team is in Game 7 of the playoffs. You are watching on TV with your housemates when one of the housemates has their significant other (of a different sex) over. The partner's friends also come making it a mixed gender audience. What changes? 
3.) You win Diamond Club tickets -- very expensive and exclusive. Who do you take with you? Your rowdiest, high-caring/high-knowing fan? Your best friend of a minority race? A low-caring fan friend? 
--What meanings are constructed and reinforced by performances of sports fans?
--What do the performances tell us about how race, gender, socioeconomic status reinforce or deny fan performances? 
TURN IN ON BRIGHTSPACE
What is due next class:
What is due next class: Please read Chap. 5 (Our Way of Life) of Howard Bryant's "The Heritage" 

WEEK 12: EXPERIENCING FANDOM FROM DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVES: Relational, contextual & negotiable
Tuesday, April 7
Discuss the scenarios from last Tuesday; discuss power dynamics and "healing" 
What is due next class: Read "Covering Race in Sport Fan Research: A Call to Action" by Osborne & Coombs
Discussion points to cover: 
How do you define athlete activism? 
Who is allowed to be an activist? 
How do performances of sport fandom change if an athlete or team becomes an "activist?" 

Thursday, April 9
VIDEO: Laura Ingraham on LeBron James (Original video) 
VIDEO: Laura Ingraham on Harrison Butker (Original video) 
What does activism or political/religious expression have to do with fandom? 

WEEK 13: HOW THEORY AFFECTS REALITY: USING THE THEORIES TO CONNECT WITH FANS
Tuesday, April 14
What we will do in class: Continue discussion from last class: Is racism/sexism a form of fandom?  
What  is due next class: Please read the following articles to prepare for conversation with guest speaker:
​* ESPN.com: NWSL Boston expansion team sorry for 'Too Many Balls' campaign (BOS Nation "Too many balls" video)
* ESPN.com: NWSL new franchise BOS Nation renamed to Boston Legacy FC
Thursday, April 16
Guest speaker Siobhan Richards, senior content specialist, Boston Legacy FC

WEEK 14: PRESENTATION PREP & PRESENTATIONS
Tuesday, April 21 – Presentation prep
Thursday, April 22 - Presentations, Part I

WEEK 15: PRESENTATIONS & FINAL ESSAY
Tuesday, April 28 - Presentations, Part II
Thursday, April 30 - Final essay (in-class) 
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