There’s nothing quite like starting your afternoon by getting thrown across a mat. Welcome to ASCL 61.10: Japanese Martial Arts, a course I’m taking this summer that meets twice a week in the classroom and twice on the mat — yet lingers in my muscles all week long.
Taught by the ever-energetic Asian Societies, Cultures and Languages professor James Dorsey, the class combines intellectual inquiry with physical practice, exploring not only technique, but also the cultural, historical and philosophical frameworks that shape Japanese martial traditions.
“Aikido” is the name we use for modern Japanese martial arts. As we learned on the first day, it is more than a set of moves. The word itself breaks down as ai (合), meaning “to harmonize”; ki (気), meaning “energy” or “life force”; and do (道), meaning “path” or “way” — the same dō as in Taoism or the Tao Te Ching. In an interview, Dorsey explained the unique aspects of this practice.
“Aikido is a two-person physical engagement rooted in combat which has evolved to an essentially nonviolent mode of resolving conflict,” he said.
In practice, Aikido involves paired techniques that simulate conflict without encouraging competition. Contrary to popular depictions of martial arts, in Aikido, you don’t fight opponents — you work with partners. You don’t strike, you redirect. There are no winners, no medals. Just bows, balance and a healthy respect for gravity.
Originally launched in the summer of 2022, Dorsey was inspired by the isolation of the pandemic.
“I realized, especially as we started to come back from remote learning, that people were craving interaction — and I include myself in that,” Dorsey said. “I wanted to engage with human beings, not through a screen. I thought that having a course with a physical component might help us recover from the trauma we all suffered during those isolated COVID days.”
Dorsey brings an impressive background in martial arts: a first-degree black belt in both Korean Taekwondo and Japanese Kyokushinkai karate, and a second-degree black belt in Aikido. These ranks represent not only technical proficiency but also years of dedicated practice: a first-degree black belt typically requires mastery of foundational forms and a second-degree black belt signifies an even deeper understanding of timing, flow and non-resistance.
“Martial arts was what got me interested in East Asia to begin with,” he said.
Bridging his lifelong practice with scholarly exploration, Dorsey carefully designed the course to be “intellectually viable as well as physically valuable.” His interdisciplinary approach has led him to incorporate student-designed units and ideas such as meditation and mindfulness into the course. Dorsey said he also looks forward to adding a future unit on exploring martial arts as an integral part of Asian American identity.
Malini Sampath ’27, a student in the class, came in with an extensive martial arts résumé: prior to Dartmouth, she practiced karate, Filipino kali, Muay Thai, Brazilian jiu-jitsu and even some Aikido. Sampath said she took the class to gain a more academic understanding of Aikido.
“I was interested in how interpretations of Aikido have changed over time,” she explained. “There’s some tension in the martial arts community about Aikido’s place and representation, and I wanted to understand that better.”
Sophie Xu ’27, who first learned about the class while taking Dorsey’s course “Translating East Asian Languages,” described it as a “rare” academic offering. As a dancer, Xu was also intrigued to try a new type of movement.
“The more I thought about it, the more interesting it sounded — especially because we actually do it, not just read about it,” Xu said.
Xu added that she found Aikido’s emphasis on mutual movement surprisingly challenging.
“There’s a lot of thinking for your partner,” she explained. “I dance, and I’m not taught to think about my movements as a partner movement. I just do what I do. In dance, it’s like, ‘Okay, I’m gonna lift you.’ It’s very clear-cut. Versus here, it’s like you’re moving around each other.”
Despite her martial arts background, Sampath, too, encountered moments of surprise.
“I came in with a more martial image of Aikido, so it was a struggle at first to reconcile that with its peaceful aspects,” she said. “But I learned to listen without judgment and incorporate other people’s ideas into my framework. That was huge.”
From classes taught in previous years, Dorsey observed how mat practice enriched classroom discussion and group interactions.
“Throwing each other and being thrown, students in the classroom are more willing to be trusting and vulnerable in their intellectual engagement because they have been trusting and vulnerable on the mat,” Dorsey said.
When reflecting on his experience teaching the class, Dorsey noted that what continues to stand out year after year isn’t a single moment, but a consistent pattern: students’ willingness to embrace vulnerability in the learning process.
“One of the things that continues to impress me is how students are willing to push the envelope or step outside their comfort zone and try something that they don’t know anything about,” he said.
In the end, what Aikido teaches is not how to win a fight, but rather how to blend in and move through conflict with grace. It’s the kind of lesson that sticks with you whether you’re in an academic seminar, a tense conversation or just trying to get through life’s chaos one breath at a time.
Xu noted that mindfulness is “a life skill that will be helpful moving forward,” especially as she starts considering her future career path.
“There’s so much emphasis on mindfulness … I’m going to a job with pretty bad work hours and being able to learn to be mindful, even with that work load, I think will be helpful.”
If the liberal arts are about expanding your mind, then Japanese Martial Arts takes it a step further by expanding students’ mind and body. And perhaps, in the repetition of rolls, throws and thoughtful meditative warm-ups, we’ll discover what “do” means: the path in your life.
