Activities

Key lectures

Presented by Professors Thomas Green (USA) and Emerson Franchini (Brazil), two outstanding figures in the study of martial arts and combat sports for decades (see their short biographies below). These lectures will highlight some of the key topics of the conference, and will allow participants to interact with the presenters in the subsequent question and answer session.

An Anthropological Perspective on Martial Culture: Performance, Politics, and Piety. Thomas Green.
Present and future challenges in combat sports training research. Emerson Franchini.

Seminars / Workshops

Aimed at raising awareness and discussing current developments and techniques for research and intervention in various areas of MA&CS from a theoretical and practical perspective.

Combat sports as an inclusive tool: outcomes and adapted practices for people with intellectual disabilities. José Morales.

More seminars / workshops topics will be announced in the coming weeks.

Expert panel

In which a group of experts will help us to understand the particularities of a specific topic related to MA&CS on the basis of their expertise, research and experiences.

The topics for expert panel will be announced in the coming weeks.

Communications

Submissions accepted for presentation at the conference will be presented by their authors in specific sessions. Depending on the number of accepted proposals, it is possible that some of them will be displayed as poster, for which specific spaces and times will be reserved. Accepted communications will be published in a proceedings book edited by the Publications Service of the Universidad de León. Young researchers will be able to participate in the Young Researchers Awards, which are given at each IMACSSS conference.

Meals and coffee breaks

In order to make it easier for participants to get to know each other, the breaks and meals of the Congress will be held in the Faculty of Physical Activity and Sport Sciences and/or in the University’s cafeterias. The dinners will be held in the historic centre of León, so that participants can experience the charm of this beautiful city.

Cultural Programme

The conference activities will be rounded off by a cultural programme designed to introduce participants to the city of León, its emblematic places and some of its traditions, including Lucha Leonesa.

The cultural programme will be announced in the coming weeks.

Thomas A. Green, Professor Emeritus of Anthropology, Affiliated Faculty Africana Studies and Religious Studies, Texas A&M University.

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.

Emerson Franchini, Professor at the Sport Department, School of Physical Education and Sport, University of São Paulo

Emerson Franchini holds a degree in Physical Education (1995) and a PhD in Physical Education – Biodynamics of Human Movement (2001) from the University of São Paulo. He has carried out post-doctoral research at the University of Montpellier (France) and at the Australian Institute of Sport (Australia). He has experience in the field of physical education and sport, with a focus on wrestling and martial arts, and has applied his knowledge to the physical preparation of judo athletes, with positive results in high level competitions such as the Pan American Games (bronze for Alexandre Lee and silver for Leandro Guilheiro in 2007; silver for Rafael Silva; gold for Leandro Guilheiro and Tiago Camilo in 2011; gold for Tiago Camilo in 2015), World Championships (silver in 2010 and bronze in 2011 for Leandro Guilheiro and bronze in 2014, 2017 and 2023 for Rafael Silva) and Olympic Games (bronze medals for Leandro Guilheiro in Beijing 2008 and Rafael Silva in London 2012 and Rio 2016 in the individual and Tokyo 2020 in the team). In terms of research, he has developed projects and publications with researchers from more than 20 different countries. In September 2016, the Wizdom website published a list of researchers with Olympic disciplines, in which he was ranked third overall and first in judo. He has lectured in Australia, Brazil, Chile, Croatia, Spain, the United States of America, France, Italy, Portugal, Russia and Serbia, and has presented papers in more than 25 countries. Honorary Professor at the School of Physical Activity, Sport and Health Sciences, University of Santiago de Chile (2017) and Visiting Professor at the University of León (Spain, 2017). Consultant for the UNESCO International Centre for Martial Arts and Youth Development and Engagement from November 2019. In 2021, she was included in the list of the 2% researchers with the highest C-score in Sport Sciences, a position he has maintained in 2022, 2023 and 2024.

José Morales, Associate Professor at the Faculty of Psychology, Education, and Sport Sciences, Ramon Llull University, Spain

Dr. Jose Morales is an Associate Professor at the Ramon Llull University in Barcelona, at the Faculty of Psychology, Education, and Sport Sciences (Blanquerna). He teaches the subject Foundations of Combat Sports in the Degree in Physical Activity and Sport Sciences. A 6th Dan black belt in judo and a Level III coach, Dr. Morales achieved national and international success as a competitor and has trained world-class and Olympic athletes as both a strength and conditioning coach. As a researcher, Dr. Morales has published over 50 academic articles indexed in Web of Science Core Collection and Scopus, focusing on training and performance in judo and other combat sports. He has also served as an editorial board member for several academic journals, including The Arts and Sciences of Judo (International Judo Federation) and Revista de Artes Marciales Asiáticas (RAMA). Dr. Morales has been a visiting professor and researcher at esteemed institutions such as the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences (Austria), the University of Central Florida (USA), Waseda University (Japan), Tokyo Gakugei University (Japan), and the University of Genoa (Italy). His recent projects focus on the benefits of judo-based sports programs for individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and intellectual disabilities (ID). Between 2019 and 2022, he coordinated the AUTJUDO project, an international Erasmus+ Sport initiative involving six European countries. This project explored the effects of adapted judo programs on children with ASD and earned the prestigious UNESCO ICM Martial Arts Education Prize in 2022. Currently, Dr. Morales leads two EU-funded Erasmus+ Sport projects: the Judo Intellectual Disability Project (JIDP), which aims to improve the quality of life and nutritional habits of adolescents with ID, and KATAUTISTM, in collaboration with the European Judo Union (EJU) and the Italian Judo Federation, promoting the inclusion of children with autism in the educational system.