Yoga and gender study group 23 April 2019

WorkshopYoga and gender study group
DateTuesday 23 April 2019 for 5 weeks
Time 17.00 - 18.30
LocationSOAS Centre of Yoga Studies

Yoga and gender study group

This study group brings together leading scholars, early career researchers and graduates to present their research and discuss in a seminar setting, using primary sources on yoga and gender.

Significant research is being carried out at SOAS on yoga and gender. The examination of yoga and gender from cross-disciplinary approaches – philology, ethnography, sociology and critical theories – explores themes of gender, sex, power and abuse within lineages, the esoteric feminine and ferocious goddesses in historical and contemporary contexts.

Attendees are asked to register for their space in advance. ​Priority will be given to those who are able to attend all the sessions. Attendee numbers will be capped to ensure maximum exchange of ideas. Those registered will receive readings in advance. There will be 5 sessions, at 5-6.30pm every Tuesday from 23rd April 2019.

To register email Ruth Westoby – r​uth_westoby@soas.ac.uk.​ ​Please include a short description of your area of related research or study.

Schedule
Monika Hirmer April 23
Playing (with) Devī: Praxis, māyā and ungendered femininity
Monika Hirmer is a doctoral candidate at SOAS researching ‘Becoming the Goddess: Study of a contemporary South Indian Tantric tradition and its implications for concepts of personhood, gender relations and everyday life.’
Room: G51, SOAS Main Building

Dr Daniela Bevilacqua April 30

Yoga physical practices and female asceticism in India, an historical and ethnographic overview
Daniela Bevilacqua is a postdoctoral researcher on the ERC-funded Hatḥa Yoga Project, a South-Asianist ​collecting, through fieldwork, historical evidence of yoga practice and ethnographic data among living ascetic practitioners of yoga. She conducted doctoral research on the Rāmānandī Sampradaya and was awarded a doctoral thesis from the University of Rome, Sapienza and from the University of Paris X Nanterre Ouest La Défense.

Room: G51, SOAS Main Building

Amelia Wood May 7

Power and gender in yoga

Amelia Wood is researching for a doctoral thesis at SOAS on yoga, power and gender: an investigation into the abuse of power by modern gurus.

Room: G51, SOAS Main Building

Dr Suzanne Newcombe May 14

Yoga in Britain: Reinforcing or challenging traditional gender roles?

Suzanne Newcombe is Lecturer in Religious Studies at the Open University and Research Fellow at Inform, based at King’s College London. Her doctoral research at the University of Cambridge was on the popularisation of yoga and Āyurvedic medicine in Britain. She is currently working on the ERC-funded project AYURYOG ‘Medicine, Immortality and Moksha: Entangled Histories of Yoga, Ayurveda and Alchemy in South Asia.’

Room: G51, SOAS Main Building

Sandra Sattler May 21

With hollow eyes and skull garlands: Fierce goddess imagery in purāṇic literature
Sandra Sattler is conducting doctoral research on the iconography of fierce goddesses in Hinduism. She is tracing the development of these terrifying deities, who are most popularly known as Cāmuṇḍā or Kālī, by analysing selected Purāṇas and art historical material. 

Room: G51, SOAS Main Building