A Short Update

This week I have finally submitted the manuscript for my book, Martial Arts Studies: Deconstructing Disciplinary Boundaries, which will be published in Spring 2015 by Rowman and Littlefield International  The book enters into a lot of realms, addressing questions such as how to approach martial arts, what different theoretical and methodological approaches promise and preclude, and exploring some of the polemics and debates in and around the field, such as Wacquant's Bourdieu-inspired 'carnal sociology' versus Ranciere's critique of Bourdieu, the status of mythic traditions, questions of learning and unlearning, and more.

Next week I will be submitting the manuscript for issue 6 of JOMEC Journal, which is a themed issue focusing on East-West crossovers and cultural translation.

After that, part of me believes I will enter into a period of calm and tranquility in which I will follow my whims, carry out research and maybe even return to blogging more regularly… Of course, another part of me remembers that I have agreed to submit two journal articles, a book chapter, and (yikes) a short book within the first four months of 2015… But, hey, once I get though that, it will be plain sailing until the Martial Arts Studies Conference in Cardiff in June. Yeah, right!

Here is the table of contents for Martial Arts Studies:

Table of Contents

 

Acknowledgements

 

Preface and Note on the Text

 

Chapter 1: Martial Arts Studies as an Academic Field

Introduction: Martial Arts Studies: Disrupting Disciplinary Boundaries

Martial Arts Studies versus Studies of Martial Arts

The Double Focus of Martial Arts Studies

Lost in Translation? The Subject and Object of Study

The Truth of Discourse

Disciplinary Demarcations and Decisions

Disciplinary Moves

Theoretical Necessity

What kind of Theory?

 

Chapter 2: Writing Martial Arts Studies: Body, History, (Trans)Nation and Narration

Introduction: Writing the Body of Knowledge

History and Ideology

Re: Writing History in Martial Arts Studies

Martial Arts, Nationalism and Transnationalism

Nation and Simulation

Hegemony and Identity

Eclipsing the Human

Primitive Passions & Crisis Modernity

Primitive Passions East and West

Man of Tai Chi

 

Chapter 3: The Reality of Martial Arts

The Reality Drive

Visibility, Physicality and Mediated Reality

Mind, Body and Mediascape

Thrills, Frills and Institutional Stills

Post-DVD pedagogy as body technology

The Reality of Combat

The Two Natures

Instituting Nature

Conclusions: Learning without Learning

Unlearning Discipline

 

Chapter 4: Martial Arts and Cultural Politics Mediated: Disrupting Political Theory

Media Ties

Culture Unbound

Universal Soldier, Postcolonial Particularism

 

Chapter 6: Conclusion: Orders of Discourse

Academic Discourse

Mediatized Dreams

Journey to the West

The Condensation and Displacement of Qi

 

Bibliography

 

Index