Each fall the International Student Organization hosts a week titled International Awareness Week, in which there is a series of events in rapid succession relating to a theme of global significance. This year the title of the week was ‘More than A Game’, and the theme was sports – or more precisely, the reciprocal relationship between sports and societies. The week featured a presentation by Dr. Jo Ann Buysse, Senior Lecturer, Socio-cultural aspects of sport and physical activity from the University of Minnesota on baseball academies in the Dominican Republic as an expression of post-colonialism, a film-screening of the 2006 Iranian film Offside, and a panel consisting of a series of St. Olaf and Carleton faculty members discussing how their specific interest in sports relate to their academic pursuits. Finally, the week was capped off by an event which invited the St. Olaf student body to experience the participatory nature of sports first-hand, by partaking in a series of activities from various cultures around the world.
-Erik Nelson ‘16
ISO Co-Chair