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Anthropology and Sociology
06 March 2020

Sociology is a combat sport

Professor Julie Billaud organised a “boxed conference” at Fonderie Kugler in Geneva with Yoann Kongolo, a Swiss kick-boxing champion, and Akim Oualhaci, a French sociologist specialising in combat sports.

On February 20th, Professor Julie Billaud together with a group of Swiss-based precarious researchers running the non-profit association Programme Indépendant de Recherche (PIR), organised a “boxed conference” at Fonderie Kugler in Geneva. Yoann Kongolo, a Swiss kick-boxing champion, and Akim Oualhaci, a French sociologist specialising in combat sports, came together on a ring created by the artist Thomas Schunke especially for this occasion, for a performance combining sociology and a boxing lesson. While Oualhaci talked about his research in boxing clubs located in working-class neighborhoods in Paris and New York, Yoann Kongolo introduced the audience to a few kick-boxing moves. A punchy and joyful experimentation with Pierre Bourdieu’s motto: "Sociology is a combat sport".

 

A film produced by the experimental graphic studio leidyi.com:

Conférence Boxée Yoann Kongolo Akim Oualhaci