Manhattanville College sports studies awarded national grant

The Manhattanville College Sport Studies program has been awarded a major grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH). The proposal, “Sport Studies in the 21st Century: Amplifying the Latinx Experience in Curricula, Conversation and Community,” presents a groundbreaking initiative that aims to explore the multifaceted social, political, historical and cultural aspects of sport within Latinx communities.

This award is one of five given as part of the NEH’s 2023 Humanities Initiatives at Hispanic-Serving Institutions competition. The college has earned a designation as a Hispanic Serving Institution by the U.S. Department of Education, which recognizes the campus’ significant Hispanic population.

The award-winning project was conceived and will be spearheaded by Manhattanville’s Sport Studies faculty – Amy Bass, Ph.D.; Seth Tannenbaum, Ph.D.; and Samantha White, Ph.D.; – who serve as project directors. The project seeks to address gaps in the field of Sport Studies, making stronger connections with the broader fields of Latinx and American Studies. By focusing on the impact of Latinx athletes and the role of sport in Latinx communities, the project aims to rectify the underrepresentation in this vital area of study.

At the core of this initiative is a dynamic speaker-in-residence series, featuring renowned scholars in sport and Latinx studies. The speakers will be in short residencies at Manhattanville over the course of the next three years, working with students, faculty and members of the wider community through a series of lectures and interdisciplinary learning clusters, building upon the strong collaborative nature of the Sports Studies major. The work will be preserved online and in the college’s archives, available for broad future use.

Bass, professor of sport studies and chair of the Division of Social Science and Communication, expressed her excitement for the project, stating, “To echo the NEH’s evaluation of our project, I think this program will serve as a standard-bearer for how sport serves as a valuable lens through which to study society and culture grounded in the humanities, something we already know to be true at Manhattanville with the overwhelming success of our major in Sport Studies.”

Founded in 2013, Manhattanville’s unique interdisciplinary Sport Studies program is the fastest-growing major and one of the largest in the School of Arts and Sciences.
Tannenbaum, assistant professor of Sport Studies, shared his enthusiasm about the project’s focus on Latinx communities, stating, “I’m excited to begin work on this project that focuses on Latinx communities and sport and will make Sport Studies even more relevant to the lives and experiences of a larger swath of our Manhattanville student body.”

By employing the Latinx perspective, Manhattanville College aims to provide students with a comprehensive and inclusive liberal arts education that reflects the diverse world in which we live.

Manhattanville College is a private liberal arts institution dedicated to academic excellence, purposeful education and social justice. For three years in a row, “U.S. News and World Report” has ranked Manhattanville the number one private, nonprofit institution in New York among Top Performers of Social Mobility in Regional Universities North.