Developing a collaborative cross-disciplinary approach to studying the 2012 Olympic Games: Some observations from practice

This paper analyses and reflects upon the experiences gained developing and delivering a cross-disciplinary module focusing on the 2012 Olympic Games. It focuses, in particular, on the ways in which colleagues from the fields of sports studies, tourism studies and other related disciplines can utilise the Games as a theme to develop cross-disciplinary collaborative approaches to teaching, both across the hospitality, leisure, sport and tourism subject areas and with other disciplines. Based upon an analysis of the experiences gained in developing a second-year designate module, ‘Managing the Olympic Games’, the paper highlights the opportunities that the upcoming London Olympics provide for developing new collaborative approaches to teaching subjects within the field.