About the Journal

The Journal of Somaesthetics is a peer-reviewed, online, academic research journal devoted to research that advances the interdisciplinary field of somaesthetics, understood as the critical study and meliorative cultivation of the experience and performance of the living body (or soma) as a site of sensory appreciation (aesthesis) and creative self-stylization

The Journal of Somaesthetics figures in  bibliometric research systems of various European countries.  The Journal of Somaesthetics is Elsevier Scopus, +Kanalregistret, and DOAJ indexed.

The Journal of Somaesthetics  is funded by:

  • Independent Research Fund Denmark, DFF (2019-2026)

Announcements

Performing Bodies: Contemporary Aesthetics Between Everyday and the Arts

31-01-2026

Edited by Elena Romagnoli and Matteo Cherubini

The issue seeks to explore some of the fundamental aesthetic questions underlying philosophical reflection on the body, particularly by conceiving it as a living and moving body—an active agent of action and interaction within the sphere of aesthetic experience. Such a perspective emphasizes the body’s embeddedness in practices and gestures that inform both artistic creation and everyday life. Special attention will also be devoted to the performative dimension of corporeality, understood as a domain in which meanings are not only expressed but actively constituted through movement, ritual, and collective practices.

  • Abstract Submission Deadline: 1 April
Read more about Performing Bodies: Contemporary Aesthetics Between Everyday and the Arts

Current Issue

Vol. 11 No. 2 (2025): Somaesthetic Practices – Interviews with Artists and Somatic Practitioners
View Vol. 11 No. 2 (2025): Somaesthetic Practices – Interviews with Artists and Somatic Practitioners

This issue places special emphasis on interviews with artists and practitioners engaged in somatic work, including those in visual arts, experimental arts, music, dance, performance, and other embodied creative practices. These fields offer unique insights into how the human body-mind functions as a site of creation, expression, and transformation. Whether through the movements of dance, the precision of choreographed performance, the body techniques of actors, the improvisational nature of sound and movement, or the ways in which physical disciplines such as martial arts, somatic therapies, or ritual practices engage the body, this issue seeks to highlight the profound connections between somaesthetic practices and aesthetic experience. Similarly, artists working in visual and experimental arts explore embodiment through materiality, process, and interactive engagement, expanding the scope of somaesthetics in contemporary culture.

Published: 11-02-2026

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What is Somaesthetics? 

Somaesthetics does not specify a single approach but remains open to various investigations and reflections concerning the body and its personal, social, cultural, and political significance with a focus on sensory perception and cognition. Pragmatism, phenomenology, Eastern philosophies, sociology, biology, and neuroscience have, among others, provided insights into this domain.

Aesthetic considerations go well beyond the arts, including everyday life and its various domains. In addition to aesthetic activities and the resulting objects, particular interest is in the aesthetic experience and its elaboration. Critical and cultural analysis is applied to reveal the underlying issues of conventional embodied practices and related aesthetic ideals, and practical interventions are used to promote transformation.

In addition to philosophical and theoretical submissions, we welcome critical and in-depth analyses with an empirical, phenomenological, artistic, practical, or other relevant orientation. You can use theories, concepts, and methods from your field of study while considering a multidisciplinary readership.

Topics of somaesthetics can be related but not limited to the following:

  • Architecture and Urban Spaces
  • Arts and Design
  • Culture, History, and Religion
  • Education
  • Experience and Consciousness
  • Experience Design
  • Experience Economy
  • Health and Well-being
  • Leadership
  • Nature and Environment
  • Philosophy and Politics
  • Science and Scientific Methodologies
  • Sports and Fitness

The Journal of Somaesthetics published continuously accepted and peer-reviewed article and  collected issue structured on a particular theme or topic. The journal is supported by a distinguished multidisciplinary and international editorial board of advisors, 

The Journal of Somaesthetics is edited by Prof. Falk Heinrich (Denmark), Prof. Richard Shusterman (USA), Anne Tarvainen (Finland), Else-Marie Bukdhahl (Denmark), Prof. Stefan Valdemar Snævarr (Norway), Professor Dag Svanaes (Norway), Senior Lecturer Max Ryynänen (Finland), Prof. Arto Haapala (Finland), , Prof. Mie Buhl (Denmark), Associate Prof. Cumhur Erkut (Denmark), Associate Professor Sofia Dahl (Denmark, Sweden), Professor Kristina Höök (Sweden), Professor Palle Dahlstedt (Sweden), Associate Professor Yanping Gao (China), Professor Mathias Girel (France), Professor Leszek Koczanowicz (Poland), Associate Professor  Laura Schultz (Denmark)

 

Relevant Links

The Somaesthetics Google Group

The Center for Body, Mind, and Culture

Somaesthetics Wiktionary