Board

I’ve been involved with martial arts studies as a field of research since I started my masters’ dissertation in 2008, although we weren’t calling it martial arts studies back then! I’ve been engaging with what is now MASA since the first iteration of the old ‘Research Network’ and am very pleased to have played a part in the creation of the Association itself. With my background in sociology, I approach martial arts studies research with a focus on social processes and interactions. I am really interested in how wider socio-cultural patterns shape how people experience martial arts, and how those experiences shape the way people interact with each other and their broader social contexts. I love to see research projects which demonstrate not just theoretical importance but also practical application. As Chair of MASA, I hope to encourage colleagues across the field to develop stronger links between research and practice, demonstrating the vitality and relevance of the academic field for creating workable solutions to real-life problems.

a.channon@brighton.ac.uk
https://research.brighton.ac.uk/en/persons/alex-channon/ 

I’ve been involved in martial arts studies since 2015, when I attended the first conference in Cardiff organised by the Martial Arts Studies Research Network. That moment marked the beginning of an ongoing engagement with a community that approaches martial arts not just as practice or spectacle, but as a serious field of inquiry. Since then, my involvement has developed through conferences, collaborations, and sustained dialogue within the field.

My research sits at the intersection of film, philosophy, and embodied practice. I’m particularly interested in how martial arts circulate through cinema and media, and how they generate ways of thinking about the body, aesthetics, and cultural memory.

My monograph, Martial Arts Ecology: Aesthetics, Philosophy, and Cinematic Mediation (Edinburgh University Press, 2026) brings these strands together by framing martial arts as an ecological system of relations across screen, practice, and spectatorship. Alongside this, Project Sifu (Wayne Wong, 2025) extends my research into participatory filmmaking and workshops, exploring how martial arts can function as a method for co-creation, diaspora engagement, and embodied knowledge beyond the page.

k.wong@sheffield.ac.uk
https://sheffield.ac.uk/las/people/east-asian-studies-staff/wayne-wong 

I became involved in martial arts studies through my early career work on capoeira, and became involved with the network after presenting at the annual conference in 2018. My early work focused on issues of legitimacy, and how practitioners use apprenticeship pilgrimage (i.e., travel to the hub of an art) to augment their standing in the community. My work then turned more towards issues of social justice, and how involvement in capoeira changes the ways people walk in the world. I am currently working on questions related to Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu (BJJ) such as how survivors of intimate partner abuse experience the embodied experiences of fear while rolling as well as therapeutic applications of BJJ. As member secretary of MASA, I am excited about the idea of facilitating collaboration between scholars and helping people find their academic home within our community.  

L.Miller@ttu.edu  https://www.depts.ttu.edu/sasw/majors/anthropology/anthfaculty/biography/miller.php 

Martial arts have been a central part of my life since starting training at 14. I have been researching them since my undergraduate dissertation on the subculture of Wing Chun (2004-2005), and other projects include ethnographies of historical European martial arts (HEMA), Taijiquan and Mexican Xilam. Various publications in journals and books since 2008 have covered topics including ageing, embodiment, gender, heritage, nationalism, religion and sexuality. Other forms of sharing my work include various podcasts, blogs and public talks. Ongoing projects include a study of ‘internal’ Wing Chun along with a co-produced community project with older adults in diverse communities, Movement Inspired by Martial Arts (MIMA). I am author of Reinventing Martial Arts in the 21st Century and co-editor of the collections Martial Arts, Health and Society and Martial Arts in Latin Societies. I have the good fortune of being involved in the martial arts studies movement since the initial 2015 conference (via video link!), and I collaborate widely and internationally to help other scholar-practitioners publish their ideas in academic outlets. As Treasurer, I am responsible for the healthy finances of MASA as well as for finding exciting new funding opportunities for our upcoming projects.

gbjennings@cardiffmet.ac.uk
https://www.cardiffmet.ac.uk/staff/george-jennings/ 

Martial arts have always been a foundational part of my life. As an early career researcher it has been exciting to be on this journey of discovering how to combine my research interests with martial arts studies. I started my martial arts journey when I was six-years-old with karate. After nearly a decade there, I did some boxing but then found my fit in Muay Thai, the “art of eight lights” and martial art from Thailand. I have more recently entered into the world of BJJ (thanks to the inspiration from other MASA Board members!).

My home discipline is education, but I do a substantial amount of interdisciplinary research which brings in gender theories, diaspora and transnational studies. My martial arts research interests include understanding embodied and pedagogical processes of learning martial arts; extremely interested in exploring women’s learning in martial arts and feminist pedagogy in martial arts, and investigating the community building potential of martial arts, particularly from an intercultural learning perspective.

As the Early Career Researcher Representative I am the voice for members who are emerging scholars on the board. I help the board with finding ways to support the board and engage the emerging scholars in our association.

edobrich@uwo.ca
www.linkedin.com/in/emily-dobrich 

In search of somewhere to present my work in Victorian literature and culture on clothing, Bartitsu, and ideology, I was delighted to find a conference not too far from me in southern California: the 5th Annual (2019) Martial Arts Studies Conference. Here, I learned that I was not the only academic who also enjoyed doing and thinking about martial arts, and that the people who were already doing so were phenomenal scholars and humans. Though my work has shifted away from Charles Dickens imagining hospital patients to actually working in the hospital as a clinical ethicist, I find myself returning to martial arts studies to think about how embodied practices cultivate (un)ethical dispositions toward others. My latest installment in this slowest-book-project-ever considers an antidote to my fears about self-defence and fascism: Brazilian jiujitsu and mutual vulnerability at the hospital bedside. As Editor of MAS, I’m excited to look back to my initial experience as an English professor to expand our network of interlocutors—particularly early-career and independent scholars—and continue to hone the already-robust academic conversation in the field.

peter.katz@uhhospitals.org
peterjkatz.com

At the turn of the 1980s, my parents were wise enough to enrol their older sons in judo lessons. Some years after I rediscovered judo during my studies in Physical Activity and Sport Sciences, and since then, judo, martial arts and combat sports have played a key role in my academic and personal life. How can throwing, hitting, choking, dislocating or locking other human beings' bodies be seen as an educational means that is full of values and appeals to so many people? This simple question still amazes me and has guided me on a long journey, during which I have met unique people who have helped me find some answers – because they were asking similar questions, too. Some of these people have now come together in the Martial Arts Studies Association (MASA), of which I am very proud to be a part as an Ordinary Board Member. In this role, I present, develop and provide advice on MASA initiatives that are of interest or relevance to MASA members and the field of martial arts studies.

cgutg@unileon.es  https://portalcientifico.unileon.es/investigadores/97250/detalle 

Having practised martial arts since my youth, I have greatly enjoyed combining this long-standing passion with my academic studies, beginning with my Master's thesis in Theatre, Film and Media Studies. At the time, I was unaware of the extensive research on martial arts. By 2015, I had begun my PhD and attended the inaugural International Martial Arts Studies Conference at Cardiff University, which opened up a new world for me.

Since then, my research focused on embodiment and meaning-making in martial arts practice, particularly Taekwondo. I am especially interested in the ambivalences within these processes, including tensions between intercorporeal experience, self-formation, social cohesion, and ideological co-optation.

The professional exchange at annual conferences has been invaluable, and I am delighted that what was once a loose network has become an established academic association. I am also pleased to contribute as Project Officer, coordinating academic and transfer projects, and I welcome ideas for academic, educational, or even artistic initiatives to develop collaboratively.

martin.minarik@uni-goettingen.de
https://www.uni-goettingen.de/de/674410.html