SOC280: BOXING AND AMERICAN URBAN LIFE
Masaryk University
SPRING 2016
FINAL TAKE HOME EXAMINATION
Instructor: Dr. Joseph D Lewandowski
Fulbright-Masaryk Distinguished Chair
Email: jdlewandowski@fulbrightmail.org
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Instructions: This final examination is designed to test your grasp of the material encountered in
this course. It is designed as a ‘take home’ examination, meaning that you are required to work
independently outside of class to compete the questions below. You may use your notes and the
posted course lectures, as well as refer directly to the assigned readings and films.
The examination is divided into two parts: short answer questions (250 words maximum) and a
longer essay question (1200 words maximum). Please be sure to clearly number and single-space
your responses. Your final exam must be returned to me electronically as an MS Word document.
Due Date: All final examinations must be completed and submitted to me via email
(jdlewandowski@fulbrightmail.org) by the end of the day on 22 May 2016. No extensions for the
assigned due date will be granted. You may of course submit your final examination before the due
date.
Part I. Short Answer Questions (25 words maximum; each question is worth 10 points)
1. Summarize the key elements of the ‘pugilistic point of view’ according to Loic Wacquant.
2. Identify two of the four features of the prizefighter’s four bodies discussed in class, and
provide an example of each.
3. Discuss how and in what ways the emergence of ‘new’ ghettos (or ‘hoods’) in the US have
shaped and continue to shape the sport of boxing in America.
4. Drawing on the film, The Fighter, and Micky Ward’s epic first fight with Arturo Gatti,
describe what, specifically, makes Ward a prototypical professional boxer in the American
urban context.
Part II. Essay Question (1200 words maximum; 60 points)
Compare and contrast Joe Frazier’s Gym in the Badlands of Philadelphia and Box Club Žižkov in
Prague. Be sure to focus your response on the history and current urban contexts of each gym, and
provide concrete examples that best highlight similarities and/or differences between the two gyms
and the urban milieus in which they are presently embedded.