The Feeling of Structures: Style as Somaesthetics

 

I've just submitted my abstract for the 2026 Martial Arts Studies Conference, which will take place at the University of Brighton over 22-24 July.

Actually, I've submitted a complete panel abstract.

The panel will be called: Martial Arts, from Somaesthetics to Somaethics. My co-presenters on the panel will be Lauren Miller and Peter Katz :-D

Here's the panel abstract:

Martial Arts, from Somaesthetics to Somaethics

This panel approaches martial arts practice in terms of questions of the possible relationships between embodied and institutional form (‘style’) and phenomenology, affect – or somaesthetics – and ethics. Paul Bowman’s paper sets out the broad concerns of the panel, and illustrates certain aspects of it via overviews of his own three case studies (taiji, escrima, and BJJ). This introductory overview is followed by Peter Katz’s reflection on the ethics of vulnerability within BJJ practice. Finally, the panel concludes with Lauren Miller’s reflection on the ethics of the affective habitus of capoeira and BJJ.

Here's my abstract:

The Feeling of Structures: Style as Somaesthetics

What does it mean to be doing one martial art as opposed to another? Where does one style end and another begin? How do we determine the differences between styles? What is the wider significance of drawing such distinctions? In this paper, I draw on the resources provided by such approaches as affect studies, phenomenology, and somaesthetics, to argue that martial arts ‘styles’ – and hence ‘martial arts’ as such – are best understood as a matters of somaesthetics – and the structuring/policing of sense and sensation that philosopher Jacques Rancière has described as a matter of the ‘partage du sensible’. In the short time available, the paper will illustrate its argument by discussing the stark contrasts between three very different martial arts: taijiquan, escrima and Brazilian jiu jitsu. The work seeks to contribute, first, to the well-worn discussion of the definition of martial arts, and second, to demonstrate the unique usefulness within martial arts studies of key concepts from cultural theory, such as ‘structure of feelings’ (Raymond Williams), ‘conjuncture’ (Stuart Hall), ‘partition of the sensible’ (Jacques Rancière), and ‘affect’ (Spinoza, Deleuze, Massumi, etc.).

If you want to attend the conference, info and registration are here.

https://www.martialartsstudies.org/masa-conference-2026?mc_cid=cfee0ba4c3&mc_eid=14e97ba8e2