University of Bridgeport Offers Martial Arts B.A.

Since the university launched the major in 2005, interest has steadily increased, and department leaders say that trend likely will continue.

Faculty members, however, are quick to counter perceptions that they're handing out college degrees for barroom fighting or bully beating. Although physical training is a big part of the program, students also must absorb a liberal-arts curriculum that includes the psychology of martial arts and the history of fighting skills developed in China, Korea and Japan.

"We're trying to raise the level of consciousness about what the martial arts really represent," said Mark K. Setton, a professor of world religions who is chairman of the martial-arts studies program.

In South Korea, more than a dozen colleges offer martial-arts degrees, but Connecticut's Board of Governors for Higher Education called the University of Bridgeport's program the only one of its kind in the Western world.

Read the full story in the Hartford Courant--->

University of Bridgeport Martial Arts Studies Program
Shanghai Institute of Physical Education English-language information page

Note: Bowery Martial Arts is no more!

You might notice that the listing for Bowery Martial Arts supply store is now gone. That's because it's no longer there! The number that was listed for that store is no longer valid... luckily there are lots of other stores still around.