With the college football season in full swing, the University of Central Arkansas Department of Speech Communication and Public Relations is bringing in an Artist-in-Residence to discuss the 16-week period football fans look forward to every fall.
Roger C. Aden, professor of communication at Ohio University in Athens, Ohio, will visit campus at 7:30 p.m. Thursday in the lobby of Thompson Hall to deliver a public lecture titled “Sports Fans and the Teams They Love (and Love to Hate).”
The basis of Aden’s presentation will come from his most recent book “Huskerville: A Story of Nebraska, Football, Fans, and the Power of Place”, which gives an in-depth look at the football landscape in the state of Nebraska. One of the focal points of the book looks at why football means so much to the people from Nebraska, even when they have moved out of the state and what makes this relationship between the fans and Cornhusker football so strong.
“I hope that my ideas about the relationships among sports teams, fans and the cultural identities of the places those teams represent, prove to be both relevant and compelling for all students, faculty and community members, “ Aden said.
While the book and public lecture are based on his experiences in Nebraska, many of the same characteristics to be discussed exist in Arkansas as well. Much like the Nebraska Cornhuskers, the Arkansas Razorbacks have long dominated the sports culture of their home state.
While the extreme or casual sports fan will find interest in the upcoming presentation, Aden notes that listeners do not have to be sports fans to enjoy the lecture. He explains that those attending the event will not only learn more about football fans and sports, they will also learn how communication can affect any and everything in our lives.
“I hope the audience, especially those who do not follow sports, will appreciate that communication about sports is often about more than sports,” he said. “In fact, sports communication is often about matters central to all of us: our values, our cultural membership, our understanding of where we belong — as well as the values and beliefs that we do not embrace.
The day of his presentation, Aden will be on campus interacting with students and answering questions about his research. His residency begins in Dr. Nelle Bedner’s communication class at 9:25 a.m. in Winfred Thompson Hall, Room 206. This master class will feature Aden in a more one-on-one atmosphere covering the relationship between sports and communication. During x-period, the Mu Theta Chapter of Lambda Pi Eta, the honors society for communication majors, will hold a reception for Aden. The event will be held in Thompson Hall, Room 331 and is open to all members of the UCA community.
Bedner, who wrote the residency proposal to bring Aden to campus, believes that Aden will appeal to a wider and more diverse audience than the typical artist-in-residence.
“While not everyone has an interest in the fine arts, just about everyone has an interest in sports. Perhaps Roger Aden’s residency and public presentation will encourage more students to learn to appreciate both” Bedner said.
Finally, when asked what he wanted students to learn from his presentation and visit to the UCA campus, Dr. Aden had this to say:
“Sports cultures are the product of communication as well as influences on communication; the relationship is reciprocal, and thus dynamic,” he states. “We invest personal and social capital in our sports teams and we hope that they represent our interests in so doing. If they don’t, we have difficult choices to make: do we affiliate with a different team, do we somehow change our values, etc.”
