Beyond the Diamond:
Baseball and American Culture

The Humanities Laboratory has once again taken up the challenge of multidisciplinary study. In order to appeal to students and to give them experiences beyond the classroom, the Humanities Laboratory has partnered with The Field Museum to teach university courses that use museum exhibitions as a means to teaching subjects in the Humanities. We have already offered courses in conjunction with the controversial Freud exhibition, the Chocolate exhibition and the Perals exhibition, currently at the Field. In all of these cases an array of internationally recognized scholars and exhibition curators taught the course. Response from students from all around the Chicagoland area has been extraordinary and has made this a truly rewarding endeavor.


This Spring, the Humanities Laboratory is offering a credit course to accompany the Field Museum's exhibition "Baseball As America" featuring prominent speakers in physics, cultural anthropology, race and gender studies, literature, film, and beyond. The course, entitled Beyond the Diamond: Baseball and American Culture (LAS 494) , is aimed at advanced undergraduates and graduate students. Meeting Tuesday evenings for three hours and some Thursday evenings, the course will build on the lecture series with films and readings that investigate various representations of baseball in American culture. Through the course of the semester, we will concentrate on the following questions: How and why did baseball emerge as a sport that signifies what it means to be American? How did a convergence of forces in the film and advertising industries contribute to making baseball both a national sport and an ideal venue for product endorsements? Who can represent the quintessential American and how has baseball come to represent values that have been perceived as collective? A discussion section in which selected readings will be analyzed in a small group format will accompany each lecture session.


This course will give students two extraordinary chances. They will be able to hear and discuss the work of the leading specialists in the field, as well as to meet with students from throughout Chicago who share their interest in the history and culture of jewelry.


The first organizing session of the course will take place at The Field Museum on TUESDAY February 11, 2003. Non-UIC students can enroll through the UIC Office of Continuing Education. Enrollment information and registration material are available by visiting the UIC Office of Continuing Education website at http://www.oce.uic.edu or by calling (312) 996-8025. Doctoral-level students at any CIC university can enroll through the Traveling Scholar program. UIC students will find the course listed in the Fall 2002 Timetable and should register through UIC Express or the UIC Student Access System.