Professor Orin Starn

Professor Starn is a professor and chair in the Cultural Anthropology department hear at Duke. He recently published a book called The Passion of Tiger Woods which takes an anthropological look into one of our generation’s most scandalous celebrities. Be sure to check it out!
 
What inspired you to write a book about Tiger Woods?
 
I’m a golfer, and I’ve followed Tiger’s career ever since he was a tiny golf prodigy. I was always fascinated by his amazing talent for the sport and charisma on the course. I was always interested in writing something about Tiger’s place an alpha superstar in U.S. culture, and the fact of a man of color dominating what has traditionally been a white sport. The tabloid scandal about Tiger’s sex life, as rotten as it was for him and his family, gave me an angle to write a book that explored the questions of race, sex, sports, and celebrity and myth-making from an anthropologist’s perspective.
 
What other activities are you involved with on campus?
 
I teach a big course on the “Anthropology of Sports,” and I was a faculty in residence in Bassett for a couple of years, where I got to know a lot of undergraduates.
 
Your work focuses on the media’s obsession with celebrities and their scandals. Do you personally follow celebrity news?
 
I read the National Enquirer in the supermarket checkout line, and People in my son’s orthodontist office. That’s about it….
 
How is your golf game?
 
It’d better if I could play more, but it’s pretty good considering I’m 51 and have a couple of artificial titanium discus in my back. I played on my college golf team, and I’ve shot 71 a couple of times at the Duke course in the last few years.
 
What are some of your upcoming projects?
 
I’d like to write a book about back pain. It’s become a giant part of American culture, life, and experience, as I know myself after no less than six back operations in the last few years.
 
If you were doing an anthropological study about the ‘Duke culture’ what do you think would be your biggest conclusion?
 
Oooh, that’s a tough one! I wish, frankly, that basketball and the greek system didn’t play quite so big a role in the zeitgeist of the university. I’d like to see a more robust academic and intellectual life among undergraduates, a little more of a liberal arts ethos. But my daughter — a freshman at U Penn — has just joined a sorority, and loves going to basketball games there and here. I suspect I’m fighting a losing battle.