Next Conference: July 2017

The third annual Martial Arts Studies Conference will take place from the afternoon of Tuesday July 11th to the evening of Thursday July 13th, 2017 at Cardiff University.

Both previous Martial Arts Studies Conferences, in 2015 and 2016, brought together over eighty academics, PhD students, scholars and researchers, from a very wide range of fields and from all over the world, for two and a half days of keynotes, special sessions, workshops and socialising. Many new relationships were formed and new collaborations initiated. Both events have clarified that the future is bright for Martial Arts Studies. The third conference in July 2017 seeks to build on these strong foundations, and to bring more martial arts studies scholars and more disciplinary perspectives together, into face to face dialogue and debate.

Confirmed Speakers include:

• Professor Peter Lorge (Vanderbilt University), author of The Reunification of China: Peace Through War under the Song Dynasty (Cambridge, 2015), Chinese Martial Arts: From Antiquity to the Twenty-First Century (Cambridge University Press, 2012), The Asian Military Revolution: From Gunpowder to the Bomb (Cambridge University Press, 2008), and War, Politics and Society in Early Modern China (Routledge, 2005), co-editor of Chinese and Indian Warfare: From the Classical Age to 1870 (Routledge, 2014), and editor of Debating War in Chinese History (Brill, 2013), Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms (The Chinese University Press, 2011), and Warfare in China to 1600 (Ashgate, 2005).

 

• Professor Meaghan Morris (University of Sydney). Professor Meaghan Morris is a figure of world stature in the field of Cultural Studies. She was recently Chair of the Inter-Asia Cultural Studies Society and of the international Association for Cultural Studies (ACS), 2004-08. A Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities, the Hong Kong Academy of the Humanities, and a former ARC Senior Fellow, from 2000-2012 she was founding Chair Professor of Cultural Studies at Lingnan University, Hong Kong.

 

• Sixt Wetzler (Deutsches Klingenmuseum – German Blade Museum, Solingen). Sixt Wetzler studied religious studies, Scandinavian literature, and medieval history at the universities of Tübingen, Reykjavík, and Freiburg. He finished his PhD on ‘The Martial Arts of Medieval Iceland: Literary representation and historical form’ in 2016. Wetzler is a member of the board of spokesmen of the commission Kampfkunst und Kampfsport (Martial Arts and Combat Sports) in the dvs (German Association for Sports Sciences). He works as curator for the Deutsches Klingenmuseum (German Blade Museum), Solingen, with a focus on the European fencing tradition and other blade fighting systems, and is among the highest ranked European practitioners of Pekiti Tirsia Kali, a Filipino martial art.

 

Call for Papers

In 2017 we remain open to proposals for papers on any aspect of martial arts studies. However, we are particularly keen to see proposals that seek to engage with the important debate that has recently sprung up (for instance, in the journal Martial Arts Studies) around the question of how to further the academic study of martial arts in the new field of martial arts studies.

Anyone submitting a proposal for a presentation should follow these instructions:

• Proposals should be 200-300 words, plus a biographical note of 100 words
• NB: Conference presentations will be 20 minutes (max)
• The deadline for proposals is 28th February 2017
• Email proposals to BowmanP@cardiff.ac.uk

Special Features

As in previous years, the conference will feature:

• keynotes
• special sessions
• parallel sessions
• a film competition
• refreshments
• lunches
• conference dinners (optional)

In 2017, the conference will also feature workshops exploring a conceptual or methodological problem of embodiment/bodily knowledge that will then be discussed in a round-table debate.

Film Competition

The film competition has two aims: first, to help one or more students to attend, and, second, to advance the field of martial arts studies not just in written but also in audio-visual media.

Instructions: make a short five minute film on any aspect of martial arts and submit it to us. We will host the films on martial arts studies media channels and assemble a committee to judge the entries.

Winners will have free conference registration, free conference dinners and (if possible)* free conference accommodation at the Martial Arts Studies Conference from 11th to 13th July 2017.

Suggestions: You may want to document an obscure martial arts style for posterity, or give insight into a system, culture or field of practice. You may want to deal with theoretical or practical issues in martial arts studies. You may want to showcase your own research. You may want to do any number of possible things. And we are open to them all.

Just share your five minute film with us and allow us to host it open access on various platforms (e.g., YouTube and Vimeo). We’ll give you full credit as creator, of course. And you will be helping to advance the visibility and insights of martial arts studies as well as standing a chance of free registration, meals and accommodation at the Martial Arts Studies Conference in Cardiff in 2017.

The Deadline for Submissions to the film competition is 28th February 2017.

If you have any questions, contact Paul Bowman on BowmanP@cardiff.ac.uk

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* We are attempting to secure flats in Cardiff University Halls of Residence for attendees. However, availability is yet to be confirmed.