Engagement
Your engagement matters. It helps to build a shared learning community. Engagement includes regular attendance, but also the quality of contributions you offer to class conversations in person and online. In short, engagement implies doing the work (reading, taking notes, completing assignments) so you can offer something of value to the class discussions and activities. [See Course Policies as it relates to attendance policies]
Weekly Readings Analysis
Each week, you will be expected to read one or two reading selections on average. Reserve about 30-60 mins. to complete your readings and note-taking. Use your notes for the Weekly Readings Analysis and for class discussions. You have 13 possible weeks to choose from to complete your 10 blog posts. This means you can have 3 weeks off! >> choose wisely! [Possible weeks: 02 to 11, and 13 to 14]
Your weekly readings will be either:
- “ALL”: common readings for the entire class; or …
- by Groups: each students has been assigned a group named after one of the three 2026 World Cup mascots: Maple, Clutch, or Zayu.
To complete the Weekly Readings Analysis assignment, you will submit a 350-450 word blog post on the course website by Mondays at 11:59pm. Before posting, make sure the correct “category” is selected based on the week and your group (e.g. Week 02 – Clutch; Week 08-Maple; Week 06-ALL; etc.). Your blog posts should synthesize the readings – make them speak to each other by focusing on a common thread. Do not summarize the articles; instead, analyze and offer an evaluation or application.
Film / Book Reviews
Students will select either a book or movie focused on the World Cup. The idea is to analyze how the medium – book or TV/film – shapes the creator’s research, arguments, selection of sources, and storytelling. The course website has examples of a formal (academic) book or film review. The final Book/Film analysis must adhere to guidelines and posted on the course website >> category: “Book/Film Review.”
Students will select either a book or movie focused on the World Cup. The idea is to analyze how the medium – book or TV/film – shapes the creator’s research, arguments, selection of sources, and storytelling. The course website has examples of a formal (academic) book or film review. The final Book/Film analysis must adhere to guidelines and posted on the course website >> category: “Book/Film Review.”
Books: Select any from the HIS 3538 Amazon page. Check with Belk Library about any books they have accessible on shelves or as e-versions. Contact me as soon as possible if you run into a problem.
Films: Select a 60-120 minute soccer documentary focused on FIFA, a particular player, team, a World Cup, theme, or event. Soccer documentaries are available on Netflix, ESPN+/Disney+, Amazon Prime Video, Paramount+, Apple TV+, and HBO Max. Belk Library might have some as well to check out. You can also find free documentaries on YouTube, but their quality is very uneven. One free documentary on American soccer is: Soccertown USA.
Research Project
This research-based assignment is fun, challenging, and open-ended. Your goal is to share your research as if you were writing a standard 8-10 page paper … but primarily through a multimedia and multi-sensory experience, with text used only as necessary (historical overview, key claims, image citations, etc).
Examples include (but are not limited to): a carefully curated photo gallery using Flickr or Google Photos; a data-heavy visualization product that either makes use of data through a series of graphs-maps-trees-charts OR represents your research through geo-mapping and data display (i.e. Tableu, Timeline JS, your own Google Map); a folder of annotated historical images with text overlay (i.e. ThingLink); photo collages or posters that capture several areas of your research topic (Adobe Spark offers an easy way to do this); a 5-min digital storytelling film; or an individual collection in group Omeka digital arrchive. We will discuss in class. If you have other ideas, feel free to share! [See handout and rubric on course website]
Preliminary Assignments: To help you stay on pace, the following mini-assignments will be due in the first half of the semester: A) your topic, research questions, and work plan; B) a preliminary list of secondary sources; C) a description (with links) of your primary sources and your working thesis; D) an annotated bibliography; and, E) first draft of your digital product(s). All preliminary work will be submitted on AsULearn.
Presentation: You will prepare an 10 min. presentation of your research, which should focus on how you settled on your topic, roadblocks or “a ha” moments in the research process, types and quality of sources, your main argument, and some discussion of how your digital tool helps make your claims come alive. A Q&A/peer feedback section will follow.
Final Product: You will submit your final work as a blog post with a brief explanatory paragraph and link(s) to your digital product(s).
Final Exam
Your FE paper will be submitted on AsULearn. No submissions will be accepted after the end of the testing window on May 7 at 4:30pm. Your task is to use smartly-selected readings from this semester and your research to explain how the FIFA World Cup explains _______ (your choice of theme, topic, issue).
