鈥楬idden Costs of College Sports鈥� topic of presentation by Center for Sport
Murray Sperber (Photo: UC Berkeley)
- March 6, 2013
Three outspoken writers and activists on collegiate athletics will speak on “The Hidden Costs of College Sports” Wednesday, April 24 as part of a Center for Sport and Social Justice presentation in the University Theatre on the Hayward Campus of Cal State East Bay, 25800 Carlos Bee Blvd.
The 7 p.m. event, co-sponsored by CSUEB’s Department of Kinesiology, will feature authors Murray Sperber and Billy Hawkins as well as noted sports physician Cindy J. Chang. Admission is free and the public is invited.
Sperber, author of “Beer & Circus: How Big-Time College Sports is Crippling Undergraduate Education,” is a former chair of the Drake Group, a national faculty committee advocating reform of college sports. He has been interviewed about college sports by CBS-TV’s 60 Minutes, ABC-TV’s Nightline and Good Morning America, three different National Public Radio programs, and Public Broadcasting’s Leherer Newshour. He has published seven books on college athletics and the NCAA. Sperber also writes Op-Ed articles for The Chronicle of Higher and the New York Times.
A visiting professor of cultural studies of sport in education at the University of California, Berkeley, since 2008, Sperber previously taught English at Indiana University.
Hawkins, author of “The New Plantation: Black Athletes, College Sports, & Predominantly White NCAA Institutions,” is a professor in the Kinesiology Department’s sport management and policy program at the University of Georgia. His teaching and research work has concentrated in the sociology of sport and cultural studies, sport management, and sport for development. He is co-author of “Sport, Race, Activism and Social Change: The Impact of Dr. Harry Edwards’ Scholarship and Service.”
Dr. Chang, the chief medical officer for Team USA at the 2012 Olympics in London and head team physician for the athletic program at UC Berkeley from 1995 to 2008, is recognized as one of the leading primary care sports medicine physicians in the country. She has published articles and contributed to textbooks on sports medicine and is a frequent presenter at national medical conferences.
“The panelists will provide a range of perspectives on issues and problems within commercialized college sport,” said Rita Liberti, director of the Center for Sport and Social Justice and a CSUEB kinesiology professor. “Whether advocating for the rights of student-athletes, challenging our assumptions about the place of sport in American higher education, or offering insight about physical injury and trauma resulting from University sanctioned athletic events, the evening promises to be provocative and engaging.”
The goal of Cal State East Bay’s Center for Sport and Social Justice is the encouragement and dissemination of political discussion and action around sport, including race, class, gender and disability.
Further information about the April 24 event as well as the Center for Sport and Social Justice is available by contacting Liberti at rita.liberti@csueastbay.edu or (510) 885-3050.