MASA Winter Webinar: “On Community in Martial Arts”
Online via MS Teams, 4 February 2026, 14:00-15:30 GMT
Click here to register your attendance for free
This webinar, the first in a new series organised by the Martial Arts Studies Association, will explore the theme of martial arts as spaces where community can develop. It will ask how martial artists come to feel a sense of attachment, identification, and belonging within the various groups that comprise their practice, and what consequences these processes might have for both practitioners and martial arts themselves.
The webinar will feature two presentations, given by panellists Lyn Jehu of the University of South Wales and Jack Sugden of Liverpool John Moores University. The webinar will then feature discussion led by Kyle Green of SUNY Brockport, and will be chaired by Alex Channon of the University of Brighton.
Attendance at this webinar is free but registration via Eventbrite is required. A link to the MS Teams meeting will be circulated a couple of days before the event to all registered attendees.
Please circulate the invitation to any interested colleagues, and/or contact a.channon@brighton.ac.uk for further information.
Paper 1: Capoeira Fusion and Community Building: A Case Study of Capoeira Casnewydd (Lyn Jehu)
This case study will focus on Capoeira Casnewydd, a Community Interest Company (CIC) based in the City of Newport. This group is representative of the diverse demographic of this area. Several of the members are refugees, immigrants or from mixed heritage backgrounds. Specifically, the influence of monthly Capoeira Fusion sessions will be examined. These classes combine Capoeira with other martial arts and on occasion, unconnected activities such as reptile shows. This case study will demonstrate how the fusion sessions have functioned as a community-building mechanism, promoting cultural awareness, social capital, and integration. A crucial element of the discussion will be the shift that has occurred within the group identity. The transition from an instructor led activity to an engaged and participant-based community will be emphasised.
Paper 2: MMA and Society: Community and resistance on the mats (Jack Sugden)
Globally, mixed martial arts has seen a staggering level of growth in participation and fandom over the past 20 years. This has resulted in numerous gyms and venues emerging, often on sparse edges of urban spaces. Yet every night of the week these spaces are home to a diverse ecosystem of combat sports training and participants. This paper is based on a 6-year (and counting) participant ethnography of one such space in England’s Northwest. Initially conceived to answer the simple questions around why people become so committed to such physically, socially and economically demanding practice, the research has uncovered further answers relating to the importance of training for the realisation of authentic community and the reappropriation of the body as a tool of resistance against the virality of neoliberal norms outside the gym’s walls.
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