Yoga in Theory and Practice Unit
We invite proposals on the following topics. Please contact the organizing scholar listed next to each topic for more information (if you feel your work might fit into more than one category, please feel free to contact organizers together):
Entrepreneurial Scholars in Yoga Studies: A Guide to Non-Conventional Career Pathways for Graduate Students and Junior Scholars - Allyson Huval (allysonhuval@gmail.com) and Christopher Jain Miller (christopher.miller@arihantainstitute.org)
This Unit seeks to elucidate the religious and sectarian representations of yoga in South Asian history and the profoundly fascinating contemporary yoga culture that has emerged in the past century. Among other topics that are addressed in our Unit is the emergence of modern yoga out of the encounter between Indian and European cultures in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. In connection with this, it examines the relative pervasiveness of spiritual and religious ideologies in manifest or latent forms within the contemporary yoga scene, and the overarching sociological relevance of yoga within global culture. We also examine changing paradigms with respect to the nature and function of yoga in the larger South Asian religious context. Our goal is to provide a venue in which the body of scholars working in this area can collectively evaluate this extremely timely material. We actively pursue scholars from Europe, Asia, and other areas that have worked at length on these issues, so as to bring an important international component to the Unit.