New course coming Winter 2025: Skateboarding as a Cultural Bridge
Beginning in Winter 2025, the Department of Languages, Literatures and Cultures will offer a new course that examines the rise of skateboarding as a global cultural phenomenon and its impact on societies worldwide. LIR 208: Skateboarding as a Cultural Bridge will explore how skateboarding and skateboarding culture have and continue to serve as a cultural bridge for many people, focusing on its role as a medium for marginalized communities globally. This course is an Open Elective within the Language and Intercultural Relations (LIR) undergraduate program and is available to all undergraduate students.
LIR 208 explores skateboarding’s power to bridge sociopolitical divides that other sports and recreational activities often reinforce while acknowledging the ongoing challenges. (Erin Patrice O'Brien/Wikimedia)
Course lecturer John Barnes, who grew up skateboarding, recognized the vast potential of exploring skateboarding culture and its intersection with linguistics and intercultural relations. Through further reading, Barnes discovered inspiring stories of young people striving to make society more inclusive and equitable. Having taught at Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU) since 2014, Barnes is excited to introduce these stories to the TMU community through LIR 208.
“This course is designed to develop and practice highly transferable academic and intercultural skills while allowing students to learn about different cultures globally,” continues Barnes, “Students interested in media studies, linguistics, and politics or those passionate about advancing diversity, equity and inclusion within the TMU community and beyond will find this course particularly relevant.”
In LIR 208, students will learn how skateboarding affects and is affected by different cultures worldwide; students will also gain a deeper understanding of these cultures, with a significant focus on developing intercultural skills and celebrating how skateboarding empowers people globally. The course uniquely combines the study of seminal skate videos with discussions on topics like government control. “Most importantly, it showcases how skateboarding unites people across sociopolitical divides that other sports and recreational activities can sometimes reinforce while acknowledging that there is still a lot of progress to be made in this area,” notes Barnes.
As skateboarding evolves into a global sport—cemented by its inclusion in the 2024 Summer Olympics, where Japanese skater Horigome Yuto won gold—this course offers students a distinctive opportunity to explore how skate culture transforms societies and is transformed in return. Course materials include readings on groups like the Skater Uktis (external link) , a global community of Muslim women skateboarders advocating for a more inclusive skateboarding culture for young women of colour. Another featured example is a photo essay on an all-women skate crew from Bolivia, ImillaSkate (external link) , who skate in traditional attire, honouring their heritage while protesting the persecution of their community.
“I hope students gain valuable communication and intercultural skills by taking the course. Most importantly, however, I hope that it helps them to further develop their sense of identity while feeling more connected to and appreciative of each other,” said Barnes.
