Master's in Sports Sociology

[GermanDaniel]

Hi everybody,

I am a new member and I joined this forum because I really need your help ;-). I'm currently at the beginning of the long way towards applying to grad school. I would love to enter an academic track that allows me to study sports not from a business or coaching standpoint but from an academic point of view with the goal of research and possibly teaching in mind. For example, programs in Sports Sociology or Sports Communication would be great. However, it seems quite difficult to find such a program. Even when I went through the course descriptions of the sociology departments of some well-known graduate schools, I couldn't find any sports-related courses. I was wondering if I could find help here in the forum: does anyone of you know of a program that allows for an academic/research focus on sports?

Your help will be greatly appreciated!

Daniel

[Coffe-ology]

You would probably have a better chance looking into Sports Psychology, or if you are focused on having the degree in Sociology supplementing the courses you feel are necessary from Sports Medicine and Psychology progams at the schools you apply to. It's going to be hard to find many if any "Sports Sociology" specializations I would look for schools with very successful athletic departments, sports medicine, and psychology programs. You will definitely have to piece together your education from several places. I'm having to do that in my current MA program because I want to focus on Sociology of Education and the one course in the program on it isn't being tought while i'm here so I am taking courses from three other programs along with the required courses from my own.. Best of luck

[lastdazeman]

Hi everybody,

I am a new member and I joined this forum because I really need your help ;-). I'm currently at the beginning of the long way towards applying to grad school. I would love to enter an academic track that allows me to study sports not from a business or coaching standpoint but from an academic point of view with the goal of research and possibly teaching in mind. For example, programs in Sports Sociology or Sports Communication would be great. However, it seems quite difficult to find such a program. Even when I went through the course descriptions of the sociology departments of some well-known graduate schools, I couldn't find any sports-related courses. I was wondering if I could find help here in the forum: does anyone of you know of a program that allows for an academic/research focus on sports?

Your help will be greatly appreciated!

Daniel

I looked through the 2009 American Sociological Association Annual Meeting and found precious little on the sociology of sports. The best was 434. Regular Session Sociology of Sport headed by Doug Hartmann from the University of Minnesota. He has taught a course http://www.soc.umn.edu/~hartmann/courses/index.html

I could contact him for you or you could maybe connect with him yourself. I actually took a sociology course last fall taught by his spouse.

The other speakers at that session who might be a good resourses for you were Rick Eckstein and Dana Moss of Villanova University.

As I searched through the sessions at the ASA Annual Meeting I found that much having to do with sports was in conjunction with something else like Sports and Race, Sports and Gender, etc.

Good luck. Let me know if I can help in any way.

LDM

[GermanDaniel]

Wow, thank you to both of you for this help, that was a great start.

@ Coffe-ology

Thanks for the advice. I was shying away from Sports Psychology programs because they mainly seemed to be headed into a counselor direction which is not necessarily my goal. I was more interested in the academic aspects of sports. But I will take a closer look. Maybe the programs differ!?

@ lastdazeman

Thank you too! That was a whole lot of great information. I will definitely contact Doug Hartmann, Rick Eckstein, and Dana Moss. The topic from the ASA Annual Meeting also sounded very interesting. Race and Sports or Gender and Sports also sound very interesting and, in fact, were part of my understanding of a whole study that is concern with the sociology of sports. Where can I see these courses/seminars/talks? Were they lectures at the meetings or courses you found at some universities?

Thank you both again for the quick help, it was very helpful and substantive so I have a nice starting point! I'm looking forward to more suggestions as well though ;-)

Cheers,

Daniel

[lastdazeman]

Wow, thank you to both of you for this help, that was a great start.

@ Coffe-ology

Thanks for the advice. I was shying away from Sports Psychology programs because they mainly seemed to be headed into a counselor direction which is not necessarily my goal. I was more interested in the academic aspects of sports. But I will take a closer look. Maybe the programs differ!?

@ lastdazeman

Thank you too! That was a whole lot of great information. I will definitely contact Doug Hartmann, Rick Eckstein, and Dana Moss. The topic from the ASA Annual Meeting also sounded very interesting. Race and Sports or Gender and Sports also sound very interesting and, in fact, were part of my understanding of a whole study that is concern with the sociology of sports. Where can I see these courses/seminars/talks? Were they lectures at the meetings or courses you found at some universities?

Thank you both again for the quick help, it was very helpful and substantive so I have a nice starting point! I'm looking forward to more suggestions as well though ;-)

Cheers,

Daniel

See if this link gets you there -

http://convention3.allacademic.com/one/asa/asa09/index.php?click_key=1&cmd=Multi+Search+Search+Load+Session&session_id=93573&PHPSESSID=951255b1475091d2b2cd5063b297c316

The American Sociological Association is one good place to start to look for who is doing research on various things.

Good luck!

LDM

[Coffe-ology]

Look at the University of Miami

[rising_star]

Several universities have degree-granting programs in Recreation, Parks, and Tourism, which sometimes have a focus on sports and/or sports management. See, for example, the following: University of Florida; UIUC; and Texas A&M. You might want to look into programs like these and see where the faculty earned their degrees to get a broader sense of graduate programs that might meet your needs.

[barilicious]

Ben Carrington at UT-Austin does Sociology of Sports - he even teaches a course on it.

[EdPolicy]

My best friend is doing a Master's in sport sociology at Miami University in Ohio, as coffeeology suggested. She has had a great experience. I know the other main program she applied to was Ohio State, but I think the focus was somewhat different than Miami's, if I recall.

There are some broken links on Miami's page, but I am sure you can contact the sport studies department for more information.

[HKK]

Several universities have degree-granting programs in Recreation, Parks, and Tourism, which sometimes have a focus on sports and/or sports management. See, for example, the following: University of Florida; UIUC; and Texas A&M. You might want to look into programs like these and see where the faculty earned their degrees to get a broader sense of graduate programs that might meet your needs.

Who is at Texas A&M that does sports stuff? I ask because I went to undergrad there a few years ago in Sociology and can only think of one person who is definnitly a race person with some sports stuff mixed in.

[Social Scientist]

Hi everybody,

I am a new member and I joined this forum because I really need your help ;-). I'm currently at the beginning of the long way towards applying to grad school. I would love to enter an academic track that allows me to study sports not from a business or coaching standpoint but from an academic point of view with the goal of research and possibly teaching in mind. For example, programs in Sports Sociology or Sports Communication would be great. However, it seems quite difficult to find such a program. Even when I went through the course descriptions of the sociology departments of some well-known graduate schools, I couldn't find any sports-related courses. I was wondering if I could find help here in the forum: does anyone of you know of a program that allows for an academic/research focus on sports?

Your help will be greatly appreciated!

Daniel

Sociology of Sport is a great field. It is small but emerging rapidly.I am currently finishing an MA in Urban Affairs. I plan on applying for a phd in Sociology and I will be focusing on Sociology of Sport.

[Sport-socio24]

This is a little old now but have you ever considered studying overseas? UWIC (Cardiff, Wales UK) offers a leading sports sociology course sport, body and society

http://www.uwic.ac.uk/courses/sport/Sport_Culture_Society_Postgrad.asp?subsection=postgrad

Great place to study sport and great course!

Wow, thank you to both of you for this help, that was a great start.

@ Coffe-ology

Thanks for the advice. I was shying away from Sports Psychology programs because they mainly seemed to be headed into a counselor direction which is not necessarily my goal. I was more interested in the academic aspects of sports. But I will take a closer look. Maybe the programs differ!?

@ lastdazeman

Thank you too! That was a whole lot of great information. I will definitely contact Doug Hartmann, Rick Eckstein, and Dana Moss. The topic from the ASA Annual Meeting also sounded very interesting. Race and Sports or Gender and Sports also sound very interesting and, in fact, were part of my understanding of a whole study that is concern with the sociology of sports. Where can I see these courses/seminars/talks? Were they lectures at the meetings or courses you found at some universities?

Thank you both again for the quick help, it was very helpful and substantive so I have a nice starting point! I'm looking forward to more suggestions as well though ;-)

Cheers,

Daniel

[Burchak]

Hi - You may want to check out the following journals to see where the authors teach or went to school: Sociology of Sport Journal, Soccer and Society, International Review of the Sociology of Sport.