Days after Heated Rivalry aired its first season’s last episode in December, John Paul (JP) Catungal was, like many fans of the hit Crave show, still buzzing with energy. On New Year’s Day, the University of British Columbia professor found himself creating a full syllabus unpacking the issues in the show.
Catungal, an assistant professor at UBC’s Institute for Gender, Race, Sexuality & Social Justice, became consumed with everything Heated Rivalry and quickly started analyzing the show through the lens of his field. “I’m a geek at heart in some ways, and I’m an academic at heart,” he says. “I could not watch the show and be a fan of it without thinking about these issues that it brings up and the kinds of scholarship on these issues.”
His syllabus explores topics such as the geopolitics of hockey, how the respective cultural backgrounds of Russian player Ilya Rozanov and Japanese Canadian player Shane Hollander shape their perspectives and interactions within the hockey world and of course, how the show found its home with a ginormous global fandom. Catungal describes the Heated Rivalry craze as a social phenomenon that “forces” audiences to ponder about perspectives entrenched in racialization, queerness and their intersectionality…read more.
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