Using Sports to Understand Our World: The Sports, Society, and Technology Program

Posted October 25, 2018

The iconic image of the 1968 Mexico City Olympic Games depicts two African-American men atop the medal stands, their fists raised in protest against racial injustice.

Less well-known is the story of Wyomia Tyus, a groundbreaking African-American athlete at those very same games whose own quiet protest in support of her teammates led to an influential life of advocacy for women in sports, and for racial equality.

Giving life to such stories — and by doing so leading the conversation on race and gender in sports — is one of the roles of the Sports, Society, and Technology program in the School of History and Sociology, a unit of the Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts.

“We want our students to understand the stories that don’t really get coverage but are important American or global stories,” said Mary McDonald, the Homer C. Rice Chair in Sports and Society.

Read more of this story about the Sports, Society, and Technology Program at https://www.iac.gatech.edu/news-events/features/sports-society-technology.