We’re currently building this section of the website. Please come back soon.
But in the meantime, we have a bit more information. Here’s the deal.
Sauna is a global phenomenon, especially when considered in all its variations (see here). All regular users of sauna, whether as part of traditional culture or as part of modern practice, will testify that it makes you feel good – really good. But remarkably, there’s almost no published research on sauna in the vast reams of western medical literature. If you look hard enough, a few hundred articles can be found, but they are generally disconnected and not part of an explicit academic field.
ASBA wants to change that. We want to create a global community of enquiry that is focused sauna research, spanning from health science, to history & culture, to technology & design.
As such, we are taking matters into our own hands and creating a full-scale academic journal called The International Journal of Sauna Studies (IJSS for short). The IJSS is projected to launch in 2018. More details will be available over the course of 2017.
These aims have been captured in a recent academic publication by ASBA president and founder, Jack Tsonis. The article makes a pitch for Sauna Studies as an academic field. It’s quite long, but freely available here for anyone who wishes to read it!
“Sauna Studies as an Academic Field” (PDF article)
Tsonis, Jack. “Sauna Studies as an Academic Field: A New Agenda for International Research.”
Literature & Aesthetics 26 (2016): 41-82.
The article is open access, and therefore free.
The International Journal of Sauna Studies is a new academic journal being launched by ASBA.
It will be 100% open access, so that all studies are available to the public.
More information will be available soon.
The IJSS will be its own entity with an independent editorial board;
ASBA will provide baseline financial and infrastructural support.
The IJSS is currently managed by two primary editors who are trying to get the journal off the ground:
Dr Jack Tsonis (Western Sydney University)
and
Dr Jari Laukkanen (University of Eastern Finland)
For any questions, email info@saunaresearch.org