Events

Schedule of Events

Past Events

• 10-12 June 2015 – Martial Arts Studies Conference
• 17 July 2015 – Martial Arts and Media Culture Conference
• 21 October 2015 – Making Martial Arts Studies
• 5 February 2016 – Martial Arts Studies: Gender Issues in Theory & Practice [view timetable]
• 1 April 2016 – Kung Fury: Contemporary Debates in Martial Arts Cinema
• 19-21 July 2016 – Martial Arts Studies Conference
• 19 November 2016 – The Mindfulness Turn in Martial, Healing and Performing Arts

Forthcoming Events

• 3 May 2017 – New Research on the Japanese Martial Arts
• 11-13 July 2017 – Martial Arts Studies Conference

Future Events

• Date TBC: Martial Arts, Media and Multimedia (Winchester). This event will explore not only traditional media but martial arts from the earliest to the most recent computer and app games on tablets and smartphones, as well as social media, such as instructional films on YouTube, web media, martial arts magazines, marketing, documentaries, TV series, reality shows and the media economics of the UFC and other MMA competitions. It enquires into the place of martial arts in all manner of media and asks how martial arts and media are interrelated.
• Date TBC: Martial Cultures (Royal Armouries, Leeds). The Royal Armouries in Leeds will host an event that exposes a range of martial cultures (from historical martial arts to classical and contemporary self-defence) to the scrutiny of contemporary cross-disciplinary debates about historiography, representation, and curating.
• Date TBC: Martial Arts in the Age of Mindfulness and Master Ken (SOAS). Taking place in the School of Oriental and African Studies, Professor Stephen Chan OBE will host this event, which explores the global circulation of martial arts in the ‘age’ of the internet TV comedy character ‘Master Ken’, whose conflicted relationship to ‘traditional’ and ‘Asian’ martial arts is at once a key source of comedy and also indicative of major transformations in contemporary martial arts ideologies. The event will enquire into the status of such older problematics as ‘orientalism’ and such new developments as medical and therapeutic research into ‘Eastern’ martial arts.
• Date TBC: Martial Arts Studies Conference (Cardiff).
• Date TBC: Martial Arts Diasporas (Middlesex). The Diasporas Research Cluster at Middlesex University will host this network event, which explores martial arts in terms of the themes and insights of diaspora research, and vice versa. It will examine the relations between martial arts, diasporas, and the social and cultural effects of their relationships.