Assistant professor of English, Barbara Ching, never understood why people would pay to watch two people duke it out in a boxing ring.
Ching decided she wanted answers.
“I just wanted to know why people pay to see boxing,” Ching said. “I hope to learn what it is that people get out of it.”
Today the Marcus W. Orr Center for the Humanities will be hosting a boxing symposium entitled, “Into the Ring with Boxing: Killer Instincts, Total Knockouts and the Big Purse” from 1:30 to 3:30 p.m.
Ching said the highly publicized Mike Tyson-Clifford Etienne match set for Memphis Saturday would definitely be a topic.
“Mike is a combination of a certain way of looking at boxing,” Ching said. “It’s prize fighting, not boxing. Tonya Harding is also a good example.”
Another topic that will be discussed will be the American Medical Association’s idea of banning boxing.
“The AMA’s motto is ‘Do No Harm’ therefore they can’t advocate boxing,” Ching said. “Brain damage is one of their strongest arguments against boxing.”
The symposium will feature four speakers from different departments who will each cover a different boxing topic, Ching said.
Verner Mitchell, assistant professor of English, will discuss sports in contemporary black novels like Ralph Ellison’s “Invisible Man”; professor of English Reginald Martin will discuss black dominated sports; Cynthia Fabrizio Pelak, assistant professor of sociology will talk about female boxers in a male dominated sport; and Cynthia Runions from the department of communications will speak about boxing in American films, such as the Rocky series.
“I think the symposium will help students see boxing in new ways, complicated ways,” Pelak said. “It will hopefully raise awareness and build reflection and discussion around the meaning and influence of boxing in our society.”
Mitchell said the purpose of the symposium is to explore the meaning of boxing and evaluate whether there is a positive or negative force in boxing.
“Students can expect a lively, engaging discussion,” Mitchell said. “The discussion will motivate students to think more about sports in our society.”
“I hope that students will come to see how their professors and people on campus feel about events that happen all the time,” Ching said. “Students will hear a lot of interesting perspectives. It’s not necessarily about boxing.”
