Round-Table-Discussion

Dr phil. Martin Joh. Meyer is a martial arts scientist and lecturer for school education at the University of Vechta. He is a founding member of the dvs commission ‘Martial Arts and Combat Sports’, served as its spokesperson from 2014-2016 and organised two of its annual conferences (2015, 2019). In 2017, he accepted a six-month research fellowship from the Japanese Society for the Promotion of Science at Kanazawa University. He is the initiator of the first German academic journal for martial arts science and publishes the series of edited volumes ‘Kampfkunst, Kampfsport & Gesellschaft’ with Prof. Dr Heiko Bittmann (Kanazawa University). His research focuses on basic research relating to martial arts (especially definitions, concepts), its didacticisation in schools, sport sociological and sport political approaches, as well as the representation and implementation of martial arts in the media and public.

Website: Martin Meyer

Dr. Corinna Schmechel is involved in gender politics in (combat) sports both academically and practically. She was an active competitive boxer for many years and has worked as a coach for Seitenwechsel e.V. - Europe's largest sports club for women/lesbians, trans*, inter* and girls - and various other clubs for over ten years. She is also an Assistant Professor for Gender Studies and conducts research in the field of queer and feminist sport and movement cultures and gender/sex constructions in sport.

Website: Corinna Schmechel

Olaf Zajonc studied social pedagogy, sports science, social psychology, and sociology at the University of Hanover and is currently pursuing his PhD at the Institute of Sociology at Leibniz University Hanover. He is the head of the IcanDo Institute for Sport & Social Work in Hanover and a co-founder of the research group KoFaS. From 2020 to 2024, he led the model project "Vollkontakt – Democracy and Martial Arts". His research and professional focus includes violence prevention in and through (martial) sports as well as body-, sport-, and movement-oriented social work.

Website: Olaf Zajonc

Franzy Deutscher works as a freelance fight choreographer, intimacy coordinator, and performer. She is a lecturer for movement and stage combat, among others, at the Bavarian Theater Academy August Everding in Munich (acting and opera singing). Deutscher is actively involved in Yoga and the martial arts of Pekiti Tirsia Kali and Kalaripayattu. She lives in Munich and balances her professional activities with her family life as a mother of two children. Originally a competitive athlete in Shotokan Karate (Kumite), she owns a B.A. in literature and history. At the same time, she worked as a performer as well as a dramaturgy and directing assistant at various state and independent theaters. She increasingly explored the question of what aesthetically and technically constitutes staged violence and how principles from martial arts and acting can be combined. These questions led her to pursue training in movement pedagogy, which she completed alongside her master’s degree in theater studies. With the support of a DAAD scholarship, she deepened her research on performance practice and martial arts through a semester abroad at the Adishakti Laboratory for Theatre Arts Research in South India. She trained with international Choreographers and interned at wellknown German drama schools. Eventually she founded the German Fight Choreography Network, which evolved into the Professional Association for Intimacy Coordination and Fight Choreography e.V. (BIK), an organization she chaired until the end of 2024.

Website: Franzy Deutscher