Below I have added brief descriptions to 40 major works that I believe will situate my dissertation. To date, I have prepared 16 pages of references in the following categories: Abuse, Recovery, and Mental Health; Acting Theory; Anthropology; Asian Studies; Autoethnography; Biomechanics and Anatomy; Cognitive Science and Neurology; Dance Studies; Directing Theory; Disability Studies; Embodiment; Endocrinology; Ethnography; Feminist and Queer Theory; Habit Formation and Performance Improvement; Improv and Play; Martial Arts Studies; Motor Learning and Imagery; Narrative and Poetic Inquiry; Narcissism and Psychodynamic Theories; Pedagogy; Physical Theatre; Practice as Research/Embodied Research; Psychophysical Modalities; Race Theory; Research Design; Ritual; Somatics; Stage Combat and Fight Direction; Stunts; Trauma Physiology and Theory; Voice and Singing. (And yes, those are actually my books!)

Abuse, Recovery, and Mental Health

Miller, Alice. (1983). For Your Own Good: Hidden Cruelty in Child-rearing and the Roots of Violence. New York: Farrar, Straus, Giroux.

There is a wealth of information nowadays about the psychophysical affects of abuse and the different forms recovery can take. Like Judith Herman’s Trauma and Recovery, Miller’s books make a rigorous connection between the inner world of the abuser and the culture that created them. I look to Miller not only for wisdom on how my work with individuals and small groups can make an impact in our community, society and Earth-wide culture. For problems that overwhelm me and leave me feeling helpless, like racism, she gives me a starting point where I feel like I can make a difference.

Acting Theory

Roach, Joseph R. (1985). The player’s passion: studies in the science of acting. Ann Arbor: The U of Michigan.

This amazing work reexamines acting styles from history through the lens of the scientific models prevalent at the time. In a way, his is a historiographic version of the modern research I want to do, so I can use his analysis to try and check my biases and presumptions.

Zarrilli, Phillip B. (2002). Acting (re)considered: theories and practices. New York, NY: Routledge.

---. (2009). Psychophysical acting: an intercultural approach after Stanislavski. London: Routledge.

In both of these books, Zarrilli discusses his use of Asian martial arts to train actors and the value of intercultural practices. His rigorous writing is a model for how to explain an approach to acting that falls solidly in the middle of the praxis spectrum.

Autoethnography

Spry, Tami. (2016). Body, paper, stage. Walnut Creek: Taylor and Francis.

I am still on the fence about whether doing autoethnography, or at least calling it that, is in my best interest, career-wise, but Spry’s meticulous outlining for how to make autoethnography meaningful is the model I would use.

Dance Studies

O'Shea, Janet. (2019). Risk, failure, play: what dance reveals about martial arts training. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.

Janet was going to be my mentor at UCLA and I was so excited when this work came out because we had talked so much about the journey her research has led her on. She is a role model to me on how to interweave dance and martial arts studies, which implies I can do the same with acting and directing theory.

Directing Theory

Ahart, J. (2001). The director's eye. Englewood:CO: Meriwether Publishing.

I really appreciate Ahart’s guides to working with people in roles aside from the actors, and the stage manager in me loves the partitioned workflow he suggests.

Benedetti, R. L. (1985). The director at work. Upper Saddle River:NJ: Prentice-Hall.

This text is older but has been a solid introduction to many concepts of directing.

Bogart, A., & Landau, T. (2004). The viewpoints book. New York: Theatre Communications Group.

Along with A Director Prepares, I have really come to respect Bogart’s work. I personally experienced a great physical freedom from doing Viewpoints work, so I would like to consult her modality alongside Alexander, Feldenkrais and other alignment balancing arts.

Disability Studies

Sobchack, Vivian. (2005). Choreography For One, Two, And Three Legs (A Phenomenological Meditation In Movements). Topoi 24.1: 55-66.

This article is an example of feminine comportment with chronic pain and limited mobility which will be useful if I head in that direction for the population I want to study.

Feminist Theory

Serano, Julia. (2009). Whipping Girl: A Transsexual Woman on Sexism and the Scapegoating of Femininity. Berkeley: Seal.                

This is hands-down the best book on feminism and femininity that I have ever read. Serano’s work is my kind of interdisciplinary, bringing in science and theory and art and culture to demonstrate her claims.                                                                                                  

Butler, J. (1997). The psychic life of power: Theories in subjection. Stanford, CA: Stanford Univ. Press.

While many people’s go-to Butler is Gender Trouble, I found this book and its implications equal parts validating and terrifying. Her section on how we hold power in the body, and how that power is read by others and reiterated through us and society has the potential to be connected to alignment science.

Lökman, P. (2011). Becoming aware of gendered embodiment: Female beginners learning aikido. In E. Kennedy, & P. Markula (Eds.), Women and exercise: The body, health and consumerism (pp. 266–79). London: Routledge.

This article is just one example of new work that is exploring gendered physical training and how corporeality can interrupt new conditioning.

Habit Formation and Performance Improvement

McGonigal, K. (2012). The Willpower Instinct: How Self-Control Works, Why It Matters, and What You Can Do to Get More of It. New York: Avery.

I have several books that all cover slightly different aspects of habit formation, but the science behind willpower is especially relevant if I want to do research that crosses into disability studies with PTSD, neurodivergent or chronic pain experiencing individuals who desire to complete regular physical training.

Improv and Play

Huizinga, Johan. (1955). Homo ludens; a study of the play-element in culture. Boston: Beacon Press.

Though there are now many critics of this book, I am a sucker for anyone who puts so much work into distinguishing subtle definitions from each other. The relationship of play to survival and sport could possibly be used to toy apart stage combat, self-defense and martial arts.

Nachmanovitch, S. (1990). Free play: Improvisation in life and art. New York, N.Y: Putnam.

I simply love this book. I cried nearly continuously which reading it because it had such a beautiful way of expressing the joy of living and creating. Not only is it informative about play and improvisation, but I want to use it as a model of narrative style.

Martial Arts Studies

Bowman, P. (2015). Martial arts studies: Disrupting disciplinary boundaries. London, UK: Rowman & Littlefield International.

Paul Bowman is the face of martial arts studies, having delineated the field, established a journal and conference, and collected essays from scholars previously limited to their departments’ connections to martial arts, despite its intrinsically holistic nature.

Olson, Carl. (2000). Zen and the Art of Postmodern Philosophy: Two Paths of Liberation from the Representational Mode of Thinking. New York: State U of New York.

This established a model linking the epistemology of Zen and postmodernism which will help me interweave critical theory with martial arts philosophy.

Sánchez García, R., & Spencer, D. C. (2013). Fighting scholars: Habitus and ethnographies of martial arts and combat sports. London, UK: Anthem Press.

Before Bowman’s book, this was the main work that linked martial arts to academia through the use of Bourdieu’s theory of habitus.

Suzuki, Daisetz Teitaro. (1988). Zen and Japanese Culture = Zen to Nihon Bunka / Daisetz T. Suzuki. Tokyo: Tuttle.    

This famous treatise is one of the main ways that Zen thought propagated to the US, and contains not only theory and history but illustrative stories that I may be able to link to imagery science.

Mixed Methods Research

Camerino, O., Castaner, M., & Anguera, T. M. (2012). Mixed methods research in the movement sciences. London: Routledge.

This book provides examples of case studies in sport, physical education and dance that I may be able to use as a template.

Motor Learning and Imagery

Kee, Ying Hwa. (2019). Reflections on athletes’ mindfulness skills development: Fitts and Posner’s (1967) three stages of learning, Journal of Sport Psychology in Action, 10:4, 214-219.

Fitts’ model of motor learning is a standard in the field and this article links it with somatic/kinesthetic mindfulness/awareness, which I will need to do in my theory section.

Franklin, E. N. (2018). Dynamic alignment through imagery. Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics.

This text has theory, science and activities that explains, as much as we can, how imagery adjusts posture, which has tremendous implications for pedagogical design.

Physical Theatre

Callery, D. (2001). Through the body: A practical guide to physical theatre. London, UK: Nick Hern Books, Ltd.

Callery integrates exercises from Meyerhold, Copeau, Artaud, Littlewood, Grotowski, Barba, Brook and Lecoq to illustrate that “there is no theory” and that discoveries are only made through practicing/the body. Although this perspective is common in many of the books I find appealing, I think it will encourage me to cultivate my artistic sensibility and stay farther out of my head.

Montanaro, T. (1995). Mime spoken here: The performer’s portable workshop. Maine: Tilbury House.

This work introduces many expert theorist-practitioners in physical theatre, including Delsarte, whose work has many parallels to trauma alignment theories.

Poetic Inquiry

Faulkner, Sandra. (2019). Poetic Inquiry: Craft, Method and Practice. NY: Routledge.

This book expands upon her earlier works to more interdisciplinary and corporal applications, ideal for my research.

Practice as Research/Embodied Research

Moustakas, C. (1990). Heuristic research. Los Angeles: SAGE Publications.  

This short book is the source of modern hermeneutic research, which has been instrumental in helping me shift my mindset regarding the goals, values and “style” of non-quantitative research.

Nelson, R. (2013). Practice as research in the arts: Principles, protocols, pedagogies, resistances. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

Nelson provides an incredibly rigorous analysis of the epistemology of practice as research. 

Shapiro, Sherry. (2015). Pedagogy and the politics of the body: a critical praxis. London: Routledge.

Shapiro utilizes Freire’s critical pedagogy of the oppressed model for embodied practice research.

Spatz, Ben. (2015). What a body can do: technique as knowledge, practice as research. Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge.

—-(2020). Blue sky body: Thresholds for embodied research. London ; New York: Routledge.

What a Body Can Do was the first book I read that expressed what I was trying to articulate that I wanted to build my career on, and Blue Sky Body has expanded on it while modeling a more poetic style of description. I hope to submit a video article to The Journal of Embodied Research for Spatz’s review.

Race Theory

Bhabha, Homi K. (1994). “Of Mimicry And Man: The ambivalence of colonial discourse” in The Location Of Culture. Routledge London. 

This now classic article was formative in my understanding of how racial identity develops.

Benesch, Oleg. (2014). Inventing the Way of the Samurai: Nationalism, Internationalism, and Bushidō in Modern Japan. Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press.

This surprising book explains how “bushido” was effectively invented based off of European medievalist romance to make Japan more palatable to Western colonialists.

Chow, Rey. (2002). “Keeping Them in Their Place: Coercive Mimeticism and Cross-Ethnic Representation” in The Protestant Ethnic and the Spirit of Capitalism. Columbia University Press.

Coercive mimeticism is, on a society-wide scale, what projective identification is in abusive families.

Somatics

Eddy, Martha. (2017). Mindful Movement: The Evolution of the Somatic Arts and Conscious Action. Chicago, IL: Intellect, Univ. of Chicago Press.

I have five books that are all very similar to this one, but Eddy’s overview is the most comprehensive.

Stage Combat and Fight Direction

Kreng, J. (2008). Fight choreography: The art of non-verbal dialogue. Boston, MA: Thomson Course Technology.

This book is incredibly hard to find and I was impressed NYU had it. Kreng looks at fights through a dramaturgical lens, explaining techniques for choreographing fights for different types of characters, scenes and plots.

Suddeth, J. A. (1996). Fight directing for the theatre. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

Suddeth is a legend in the field and this text was used for a generation of practicioners.

Wise, A. (2014). The history and art of personal combat. New York: Dover Publications. 

David Brimmer suggested that this text was the most authentic and usable reference for Historical European Martial Arts (HEMA) applied to stage combat.

Trauma Physiology and Theory

Levine, Peter A. (2010). In an Unspoken Voice: How the body releases trauma and restores goodness. Berkeley, CA: North Atlantic. 

This book picks up where Waking the Tiger left off, revealing new scientific discoveries and further developing the theory and practice of Somatic Experiencing.

Van Der Kolk, Bessel A. (2014). The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma. New York: Viking. 

Van Der Kolk is now somewhat of a controversial figure in trauma psych, but he was one of the first to develop a research protocol for studying the effects of yoga on hypervigilance.

Scaer, Robert C. (2014). The Body Bears The Burden. London: Taylor and Francis.

While my go-to book to explain the postural affects of trauma on the body is Paul Linden‘s Winning is Healing, the science that backs up Linden’s claims are outside the scope of his book since it is directed at abuse survivors and aikido instructors. The science is, however, almost all found in here.

Voice and Singing

Dal Vera, Rocco [Ed. ]. (2001). The voice in violence and other contemporary issues in professional voice and speech training. Cincinnati, OH: Voice and Speech Trainers Association.

A large collection of essays on everything from general vocal pedagogy for singers, to specialized approaches to rehabilitation and prevention of harm.