"Picturing Maria Sharapova", a course at the tuition of California, Santa Barbara, encourages students to investigate subculture as they analyze the former WTA World No.1.
You consider you know every thing about Maria Sharapova? think once more. Then, check in for 1 / 4-lengthy route on the college of California, Santa Barbara. college students will examine the intersections of "representation, gender, and the global in elite activity" as they study the career and media perceptions of Sharapova, a former WTA World No.1 and 5-time Grand Slam champion.
"Picturing Maria Sharapova" is an undergraduate classification provided as a part of the 2019 Spring catalog of UC Santa Barbara's department Feminist reports, and it's taught with the aid of Professor Anita Stahl, a tennis fan and doctoral pupil on the college.
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Combining her BA in Gender and Sexuality reports from big apple college, an MA in Gender studies from Humboldt university of Berlin and her in-development PhD in Feminist experiences at UC Santa Barbara with a lifelong ardour for girls's tennis, Stahl's educational work seeks to investigate the sport from a feminist factor of view.
At its core, "Picturing Maria Sharapova" is not about Maria Sharapova at all. based on Stahl, it's about gender, femininity, globalization, labor, immigration, heritage, race, and media - and the methods these ideas conflict and intersect - all viewed in the course of the lens of the 11-time highest paid female athlete on the planet.
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as a result, the type syllabus lists Sharapova's 2017 memoir, Unstoppable: My existence to date, as required reading, along with tutorial texts
"for example, one day college students could study French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu's work on classification and cultural capital, and the second day they'd be requested to scroll via Sharapova's Instagram feed and analyze how she portrays herself in Bourdieu's phrases."
"My aim is for college kids to question way of life," Stahl delivered. "The point is not for them all to turn into Sharapova consultants, but for them to believe during the layered meanings of the tradition they consume and are uncovered to all of the time."
It's not the primary time that a university route has chosen to tackle world considerations with a star or sports figure as a degree of reference. each Rutgers institution and the school of Victoria have provided lessons discovering pop singer Beyoncé's affect on track and feminism, while Staffordshire university has given college students the possibility to examine David Beckham, and the school of British Columbia has analyzed the world photo of Cristiano Ronaldo.
thrilled to announce my new @ucsantabarbara category, wherein college students will be taught world and visible studies by analyzing representations of @MariaSharapova pic.twitter.com/pJX1D7zqVs
— Anita Stahl (@anitastahl) February 22, 2019
Born in Germany, Stahl's affinity for tennis started when she first picked up a racquet at four years historical, and he or she's never looked again.
"starting to be up German when Steffi Graf and Boris Becker have been of their leading, tennis become always present in my life," Stahl observed.
Her focus grew to become to Sharapova in 2016 right through the wake of the Russian participant's announcement of a failed drug verify, and the suspension and media scrutiny that followed.
"When she changed into suspended, some of the strongest global groups commented on it," she mentioned. "Her moves bought responses from the United countries, Nike, the Kremlin, Porsche, and that i just discover that spectacular."
according to Stahl, the type is a "fruits of years of research into girls's tennis" and the tutorial fields she's used to analyze it. As a freelance photographer and journalist, part of Stahl's hands-on analysis - known as "participant statement box work" - comprises attending tennis tournaments and documenting tennis life on court and behind the scenes, interviewing gamers and media alike.
"Picturing Maria Sharapova", a course on the institution of California, Santa Barbara, encourages college students to examine way of life as they analyze the previous WTA World No.1. (Getty photos)
"I get a height at the back of the scenes of how tennis is produced for fan consumption," she explained. "I get to meet the avid gamers, see press conferences, seek advice from fans, and observe how journalists work to create meaning and locate reviews."
The type - at the start meant for 25 students, however increased to 30 because of high demand - isn't Stahl's best tutorial project involving women's tennis. considered one of her outdated courses, "The meaning of Serena Williams", explored gender, race and sexuality in sports celebrity. And her dissertation, "studying Between the Baselines: world Regimes of Race, Gender, and Sexuality in Elite women's Tennis" seeks to address the issues and opportunities introduced by means of the international nature of the WTA.
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"I examine and train about a handful of the most elite women in tennis history," she noted. "I'm interested in the most powerful: how they bought their vigour, what makes them different, and how they use their have an impact on."
"Love her or hate her, Sharapova has been a really powerful determine in tennis for over a decade," Stahl introduced. "I write about Sharapova, Serena Williams, Althea Gibson, Chris Evert, and others as a result of I in fact agree with these people have significantly impacted the trajectory of ladies's tennis."
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