Fighting Identity

Through immersive ethnography, this book explores how fighters at a Muay Thai/Kickboxing gym in East London attempt to reject pre-established identity markers such as race and gender.

Amit Singh has a PhD in Psychosocial Studies from Birkbeck, University of London. He has written on questions of race and subjectivity and is involved in public education projects such as the Connected Sociologies Curriculum Project. He also runs a 26-week supplementary sociology enrichment curriculum - "Race, Class & Society" - across two sixth forms in South and East London, as well as an annual summer school.

1 Introduction 2 Becoming a Fighter and Escaping Identity 3 Gender in the Gym: Fighting for Respect in a "Cis-Male Space" 4 Carnal Conviviality, Culture & Complex Identities 5 No Race, No Racism? 6 Black Masculinity: Being a Fighter or Being a "Black Fighter"? 7 Conclusion: Making Fighters, Un-making Identity?