A Syndemics Approach to NCAA Collegiate Sport Participation During COVID-19

Caitlin Vitosky Clarke, Kaitlin Pericak, Brynn C. Adamson, Kassidy Mahoney

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingChapter

Abstract

We utilize a syndemic-oriented interrogation of risk in the context of NCAA football and COVID-19 in light of historical conceptions of racialized bodies in physical culture. A syndemic occurs when two health conditions aggregate at a population level---created or exacerbated by a social factor (Singer et al., The Lancet, 389, 941--950, 2017). It involves both a Bio-Bio interaction between the two disease entities as well as exacerbation by the Bio-Social, leading to worsened suffering that would not occur otherwise (Singer et al., Global Public Health, 15, 943--955, 2020). Introducing this paradigm to sport sociology enables our understanding of the effects of COVID-19 in a U.S. sporting context. Specifically, we argue that there is a potential for creating a syndemic through pressures to return to in-person collegiate play which is a conflation of a ``return to normal American life'' using NCAA football to signify normalcy during a pandemic.
Original languageEnglish (US)
Title of host publicationSport and Physical Culture in Global Pandemic Times: COVID Assemblages
EditorsDavid L. Andrews, Holly Thorpe, Joshua I. Newman
Place of PublicationCham
PublisherSpringer
Pages569-596
Number of pages28
ISBN (Electronic)9783031143878
ISBN (Print)9783031143861, 9783031143892
DOIs
StatePublished - May 4 2023

Publication series

NameGlobal Culture and Sport Series
ISSN (Print)2662-3404
ISSN (Electronic)2662-3412

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