Ben Miller
Ph.D. in Physical Culture and Sport Studies, University of Texas at Austin, expected 2028
B.F.A. in Film and Television, New York University - Tisch School of the Arts, 2000
Email: dbm2488@my.utexas.edu
B.F.A. in Film and Television, New York University - Tisch School of the Arts, 2000
Email: dbm2488@my.utexas.edu
Ben Miller is a historian of physical culture and a PhD student in Physical Culture and Sport Studies at the University of Texas at Austin, where he holds a Texas New Scholar Fellowship and the Alderson Award. His research focuses on the history of physical culture in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, particularly its intersection with fencing and the martial arts, the German Turner movement, and the Swedish gymnastics system of Pehr Henrik Ling.
Before entering doctoral study, Miller published extensively as an independent scholar in the history of fencing and physical culture. His books include Irish Swordsmanship: Fencing and Dueling in Eighteenth-Century Ireland (2017); Scottish Fencing: Five 18th-Century Texts (2018, co-authored); Methods of Using the Club for Self-Defense and Exercise in 19th Century Germany (2022); The Gladiatory Art: The Lives, Writings, & Techniques of the Eighteenth Century Stage Gladiators (2024); Babe Ruth's Long-Lost Manual of Physical Fitness (2024); and two edited volumes of writings by the nineteenth-century duelist and fencing master Colonel Thomas Hoyer Monstery. His work has been featured in the Japanese Journal of Physical Education (2025).
In January 2025, Miller received the David Webster Award for Best Graduate Essay from the Physical Cultures of the Body Conference for "The Renaissance Origins of Fencing as a Strength-Enhancing Practice," subsequently published in Iron Game History.
He holds a BFA from the Tisch School of the Arts at New York University, where he graduated with honors as an NYU Founders Scholar and was a recipient of the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Grant.
Before entering doctoral study, Miller published extensively as an independent scholar in the history of fencing and physical culture. His books include Irish Swordsmanship: Fencing and Dueling in Eighteenth-Century Ireland (2017); Scottish Fencing: Five 18th-Century Texts (2018, co-authored); Methods of Using the Club for Self-Defense and Exercise in 19th Century Germany (2022); The Gladiatory Art: The Lives, Writings, & Techniques of the Eighteenth Century Stage Gladiators (2024); Babe Ruth's Long-Lost Manual of Physical Fitness (2024); and two edited volumes of writings by the nineteenth-century duelist and fencing master Colonel Thomas Hoyer Monstery. His work has been featured in the Japanese Journal of Physical Education (2025).
In January 2025, Miller received the David Webster Award for Best Graduate Essay from the Physical Cultures of the Body Conference for "The Renaissance Origins of Fencing as a Strength-Enhancing Practice," subsequently published in Iron Game History.
He holds a BFA from the Tisch School of the Arts at New York University, where he graduated with honors as an NYU Founders Scholar and was a recipient of the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Grant.
