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:
The Center for Body, Mind, and Culture at Florida Atlantic University invites paper proposals for a conference on “Atmospheres of the Spiritual,” to be held on December 4–5, 2025, at FAU’s Boca Raton campus.
Read more about Call for Papers: “Atmospheres of the Spiritual”
If eros designates those generative impulses within us that affirm and preserve life, and thanatos the latent drive toward death and dissolution, then how might we interrogate these antithetical yet entwined forces through the lens of somaesthetics? The term flesh—as distinct from body—invites us to reflect upon the ceaseless tension and intimacy between eros and thanatos: a dialectic in which vitality and finitude, desire and decay, define and delimit one another. In contrast, the notion of body—objectified, dissectible, the concern of biomedical inquiry—lacks this existential resonance. Most significantly, somaesthetics, in naming the soma, invokes neither the inert body nor the theological connotations of the flesh, but rather the lived, perceptive, and purposive corporeality of human existence.
As Shusterman (2014) clarifies, soma is preferred precisely “to avoid problematic associations of body (which can be a lifeless, mindless thing) and flesh (which designates only the fleshly parts of the body and is strongly associated with Christian notions of sin)” and to underscore that the somaesthetic project “concerns the lived, sentient, purposive body rather than merely a physical body.” The contributions to this special issue, then, constitute an exploration of the tension and interrelation between eros and thanatos through a distinctly somaesthetic prism—with dance, as a privileged modality of embodied expression, occupying a central position.
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:
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
