Published: May 27, 2026; Aithor: Julia Sonrisa
Please join the second in the season of the new Martial Arts Studies Association (MASA) webinars featuring global research and scholarship.
The Martial Arts Studies Association (MASA) is pleased to announce our next online webinar: Martial Arts and Cultural Connections.
We warmly invite colleagues, students, practitioners, and members of the wider martial arts community to join us for what promises to be a rich and interdisciplinary online discussion via Microsoft Teams.
“Appropriation, Amalgamation, and Validation: Creating Authenticity in the Martial Arts”
Speaker: Thomas A. Green, Professor Emeritus of Anthropology, Affiliated Faculty, Africana Studies and Religious Studies, Texas A&M University (USA).
Professor Emeritus Thomas A. Green will explore the role of martial arts as a cultural bridge between American practitioners and Asian traditions, examining how language, lineage, and historical narratives are used to construct authenticity and legitimacy in martial arts practice. Drawing on qualitative research in the United States, the presentation considers the tensions between cultural exchange, appropriation, and the negotiation of tradition within transnational martial arts communities.
Thomas A. Green earned his PhD in Anthropology (with a concentration in Folklore) from the University of Texas at Austin. After teaching Folklore and Native American Studies at Idaho State University and Folklore at the University of Delaware, he joined the faculty of Texas A&M University in 1978. Dr. Green also has held visiting professorships at the University of Texas at Austin (English and Anthropology), Luther College (Anthropology and Dance), and Southwest University of China, Chongqing, China (Ethnology and Sport Science). He has conducted research among groups ranging from mainland Chinese martial artists to African-American and Native American political activists, focusing on the ways that traditional art forms — especially festival, drama, and martial culture — identify and manage social relationships. He currently collaborates with Chinese colleagues on the impact of state recognition of martial practices as intangible heritage arts in China. In addition to over one hundred academic articles and notes, he has published twelve book-length volumes on these topics — including Martial Arts of the World: An Encyclopedia (2001), Martial Arts in the Modern World (2003), Martial Arts of the World: An Encyclopedia of History and Innovation (2010) —, volumes which have won a total of five awards. Dr. Green has served in editorial roles for academic journals in the U.S., Europe, and China, including Martial Arts Studies, Revista de Artes Marciales Asiáticas, IDO Movement for Culture: Journal of Martial Arts Anthropology, Humanities, and the Journal of American Folklore, the flagship journal of his sub-discipline. His recent research continues to focus on social functions of combat sport and African-descended and Chinese vernacular martial culture.
“Perspectives on Sumo as an International Professional Sport”
Speaker: Martin J. Meyer, Lecturer and Researcher, University of Vechta (Germany)
Dr Martin J. Meyer will discuss the global prospects and limitations of professional sumo (osumo) as a culturally specific sporting practice. The presentation examines the relationship between indigenous Japanese traditions, nationalism, tourism, and international audiences, reflecting on the tensions between global visibility and cultural exclusivity within contemporary sumo.
Dr Martin J. Meyer is a martial arts researcher and lecturer at the University of Vechta. He is a founding member of the German academic network ‘Commission for Martial Arts & Combat Sports’, and served two years as its spokesperson. He is also a founding member and former editor of the ‘Journal of Martial Arts Research’ and is currently editor of the ‘Martial Arts Studies Journal’. His research projects focus on interdisciplinary, particularly pedagogical, socio-political, and psychological aspects of martial arts, with a focus on Japanese culture. In 2017, he received a scholarship from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science to conduct research in Kanazawa, Japan. His doctoral thesis formed the basis for the academic project ‘Why Martial Arts’, whose sub-studies focus on the participation motives of martial artists. He is an avid kickboxer and Kyokushinkai karateka.
Dr. Fabiana Turelli is an Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Kinesiology and Recreation Management at the University of Manitoba, Canada. Her research program is critical, inviting continuous reflexivity by combining concepts of critical theory, feminism, sociology of sport, critical pedagogies, and intersectionality. She advocates for social justice in sport, investigating how to “reshape” embodiments through the potential of martial arts and combat sports as empowering and healing tools. Dr. Turelli is enthusiastic about bold, creative, disrupting methodologies and possibilities for knowledge generation, mobilization, and dissemination.
Time: 9:00-11:00 am EST
Free!
Detailed information and discussion of the event.