Listen to Athletes for a Change: Why Sports Matter
UMass Amherst
161 Presidents Drive
Amherst MA 01003
A Public Lecture by 2024 UMass History Writer-in-Residence Amy Bass
In 2018, when NBA star Lebron James criticized President Trump on ESPN, Fox News host Laura Ingraham told him to “shut up and dribble.” The collisions amongst politics, culture, and sport mandate that we unpack sport, make meaning out of sport, and understand that when athletes take to the court, the pitch, and the field, they bring with them who they are and what they believe in. While “stick to sport” may be a mantra trotted out by critics who think athletes should only operate within the parameters of the games they play, sticking to sport — and all that actually comes with it — can tell us everything we need to know about the world we live in.
Writer-In-Residence Program
This residency is presented by the UMass/Five College Graduate Program in History as part of the 2024 History Writer-In-Residence Program. Supported by Five Colleges, Inc., this program hosts renowned writers whose historical work engages broad public audiences in residence in the UMass Amherst Department of History.
Getting Here
This lecture will be held in the UMass Amherst History Department: 601 Herter Hall, 161 Presidents Drive, Amherst, MA 01003. Herter Hall is located on UMass’s Haigis Mall and is a short distance from the Robsham Visitors Center public parking lot (300 Massachusetts Ave, Amherst, MA, $1.50/hour). Herter Hall is wheelchair accessible. To request additional accommodations, email the communications office at: communications@history.umass.edu.
More info: Campus Map with the Venue Indicated | Driving Directions to the Parking Lot | Bus Schedule
Emmy award winning writer Amy Bass, Ph.D., is Professor of Sport Studies and Chair of the Division of Social Science and Communication at Manhattanville College. As a writer and scholar, she engages audiences inside and outside of academia with a focus on sport, culture, and politics. Her first book, Not the Triumph, but the Struggle: the 1968 Olympic Games and the Making of the Black Athlete, is considered a standard-bearer for the study of sport from a cultural perspective. Her most recent work, One Goal: A Coach, a Team, and the Game That Brought a Divided Town Together, was named a best book of 2018 by the Boston Globe and Library Journal; was featured on the Today Show, NPR’s “The Takeaway,” “Midday,” “Under the Radar,” and “Only a Game,” and excerpted in both Sports Illustrated and ESPN’s The Undefeated. It has been optioned for film. In its starred review of the book, Kirkus called ONE GOAL “an edifying and adrenaline-charged tale,” while the Wall Street Journal declared it “the perfect parable for our time,” and the Globe & Mail dubbed it “magnificent and significant.” She edits her own series, “Sporting,” for Temple University Press. Her writing has appeared in Slate, Salon and CNN Opinion, where she is a frequent contributor on the intersections of sport, culture, and politics, and she provides sport commentary for Northeast Public Radio. A veteran of eight Olympic Games, she received her Emmy in 2012 for Outstanding Live Event Turnaround for her work for NBC’s Olympics coverage in London. A native of the Berkshires, she resides in the New York metropolitan area with her husband, daughter, and a dog named Cuffy. Bass received a Ph.D. in History with distinction from Stony Brook University.
Another chance to hear from Amy Bass: One Goal Reading and Q&A
TUESDAY, APRIL 9th | 7:00PM-8:00PM | JONES LIBRARY
When thousands of Somali refugees resettled in Lewiston, Maine, a struggling, overwhelmingly white town, longtime residents grew uneasy. Then the mayor wrote a letter asking Somalis to stop coming, which became a national story. While scandal threatened to subsume the town, its high school's soccer coach integrated Somali kids onto his team, and their passion began to heal old wounds. Taking readers behind the tumult of this controversial team — and onto the pitch where the teammates vied to become state champions and achieved a vital sense of understanding — One Goal is a timely story about overcoming the prejudices that divide us.
Departmental (co)sponsorship of various types of events does not constitute an endorsement of the views expressed by the presenters, either at the events in question or in other venues. Rather, sponsorship is an endorsement of the exploration of complex and sometimes difficult topics. The UMass History Department is committed to promoting the free and peaceful exchange of ideas, one of the most important functions of the university.