Call for Papers, No. 43, September 2027

Sport, Body, and Spirit: Philosophical Approaches to the Aesthetics of Sport

The Editorial Board of AM Journal of Art and Media Studies (ISSN 2217-9666 and ISSN 2406-1654) invites scholars to submit original contributions for a special thematic issue on the philosophy and aesthetics of sport.

The guest editor of this issue will be Dr. Primož Repar (Central European Research Institute Søren Kierkegaard, Ljubljana, Slovenia).

The aim of this issue is to explore sport as a philosophical and cultural phenomenon, as a space where embodiment, pain, playfulness, kinesthetic experience, ritual, and transcendence converge in ways that demand sustained theoretical attention.

Special attention will also be devoted to the existential dimensions of sport as a space for the formation of meaning, freedom, risk, self-transcendence, anxiety, community, and flourishing, as well as to the question of movement and action as fundamental modes of human existence in the world.

Situated at the intersection of art theory, cultural studies, philosophy of art, phenomenology, and media studies, sport has long remained a marginal subject within the humanities. This issue seeks to address that absence and to open a space for an in-depth interdisciplinary examination of sport as a form of practice, spectacle, and meaning-making.

We welcome contributions drawing on a broad range of theoretical traditions—phenomenology, semiology, post-structuralism, philosophy of religion, performance studies, aesthetics, psychoanalysis, gender studies, biopolitics, philosophical anthropology, logosomatics, philosophy of existence, personalism, philosophy of action, hermeneutics, philosophy of religion and spiritual traditions, new phenomenology, and other approaches—and that are prepared to take sport seriously as an aesthetic and philosophical object.

Thematic Areas

Submissions are particularly encouraged around the following themes, while contributions addressing related issues are also welcome.

Embodiment and Corporeality

• Phenomenological approaches to the athletic body (Merleau-Ponty, Sheets-Johnstone, Leder)
• Body image, body schema, and proprioception in sport
• The aesthetics of athletic movement and kinesthetic beauty
• Sport, disability studies, and the limits of the normative body
• Corporeal representations in sports media and imagery

Pain and Endurance

• The philosophical significance of pain in athletic practice and training
• Endurance, suffering, and the ethics of pushing embodied limits
• Pain as a site of self-knowledge, transformation, and subjectivity
• Injury, vulnerability, and the fragility of embodied life
• Medical, ethical, and biopolitical dimensions of managing pain in sport

Play and Sport Games

• The ontology of play: rules, freedom, spontaneity, and the magic circle
• Homo ludens: the legacy of Huizinga and its critical reception
• Conceptual distinctions between play, sport games, and sport
• The serious and the playful: paradoxes of competitive sport culture
• Digital games, e-sports, and the expanding boundaries of sport

Movement, Rhythm, and Motility

• Movement as a fundamental mode of being-in-the-world
• Flow states and the phenomenology of peak athletic performance
• Rhythm, temporality, and spatial experience in sport
• Technology, prosthetics, and the technologically mediated sporting body
• Dance, martial arts, and kinesthetic arts as boundary forms
• Movement as a creative act and expression of human existence
• The ontology of movement: between corporeality, action, and meaning
• The relationship between movement, rhythm, imagination, and creativity
• Dance and sporting practices as forms of existential articulation of the world

Existence, Action, and the Creation of Meaning

• Sport as an existential situation: freedom, decision, risk, and responsibility
• Movement as a philosophical category and a mode of human self-realization
• Philosophy of action and sport as a practice of actualizing values
• Anxiety, uncertainty, defeat, and failure as existential dimensions of sporting experience
• Courage, perseverance, hope, and self-transcendence in sport
• Flourishing, fulfillment, and meaning in sporting activity
• Sport as a space for the formation of identity, personality, and life orientation
• Community, friendship, solidarity, and interpersonal relationships in sport
• Authenticity and inauthenticity in contemporary sport culture
• An existential phenomenology of sporting/athletic experience

Spirituality, Religion, and Transcendence

• Sport as ritual: parallels with and departures from religious practice
• Sporting asceticism, discipline, and embodied spiritual traditions
• The sacred and the profane in sport spectatorship and fan culture
• Peak experience, transcendence, and the quasi-divine in sport
• Martial arts, yoga, and meditation as spiritual-athletic practices
• Nationalist mythology, sacrifice, and the politics of sport as a secular religion
• Spiritual renewal, personal transformation, and sporting practice
• Contemplative dimensions of movement, bodily discipline, and attention
• Sport between immanence and transcendence
• Questions of meaning, vocation, and life purpose in sport
• Sport as a path of self-knowledge and the formation of ethical personality

Sport, Spectacle, and Contemporary Culture

• Philosophical and aesthetic analyses of the sporting spectacle
• Sport between authentic experience and media representation
• Heroism, myth, and collective imagination in sport
• Media production of sporting images and affects
• Sport as a site of social critique and cultural reflection

Potential contributors are invited to submit their full-text proposals, 3,000–5,000 words in length (excluding footnotes and list of references), formatted according to the Journal’s stylistic guidelines, by March 31, 2027, at the latest.

Please send your full-text submissions and queries (if any) by email to both the issue editor Dr. Primož Repar (primoz_repar@t-2.net) and the Journal email address: amjournal@outlook.com.

AM Journal is organized into four sections: Main Theme, Beyond the Main Theme, Artist Portfolio, and Book Reviews. Only the first section, which is also the central one, is predefined by the issue's main theme.

Stylistic Guidelines can be found here.

Please note: In accordance with the journal categorization of the Ministry of Science, Technological Development, and Innovation of the Republic of Serbia, only original scholarly articles that meet the highest academic standards are accepted for submission. Upon submission, the Editorial Team conducts an initial screening and selection of manuscripts, then forwards the chosen submissions for double-blind peer review. The ultimate decision regarding the acceptance of a manuscript is contingent upon the outcomes of the peer review process.

The issue is scheduled for publication in September 2027.

We look forward to receiving your submission proposals!

AM Journal Editorial Team with Guest Issue Editor, Dr. Primož Repar, Central European Research Institute Søren Kierkegaard, Ljubljana, Slovenia