TRADITIONS OF YOGA 2023
ZOOM REGISTRATION LINK:
https://ubc.zoom.us/meeting/register/u5crf-ioqDopG9KX5_7pzkqfZ1Gc4wMYCX1Y
Today, postural yoga is practiced around the world, and has fostered a massive, multi-billion-dollar industry. But where did it come from? And how did it get here? That is, what were the historical contexts in which postural yoga first developed in South Asia? And how did certain colonial and postcolonial cultural “flows” lead to the globalized traditions found in today’s yoga studios? And what is it doing here, now that it’s here?
These are the questions that we investigate in ASIA 210: Traditions of Yoga, a course at UBC. Given that these concerns are shared by yoga practitioners, South Asian communities in the diaspora, and other general publics, we are pleased to invite you to join our students for a public LECTURE SERIES on Thursday afternoons as we welcome noted scholars to discuss how and why they study yoga through historical, cultural, and critical lenses.
All events are held LIVE at UBC and live-streamed on Zoom. The lectures will not be recorded.
LOCATION: Asian Centre Auditorium (1871 West Mall, Vancouver BC V6T1ZA2)
This event is presented by the Sanskrit Program in the Department of Asian Studies, UBC.
TO REGISTER for the ZOOM Livestream, please visit:
https://ubc.zoom.us/meeting/register/u5crf-ioqDopG9KX5_7pzkqfZ1Gc4wMYCX1Y
FULL SCHEDULE:
March 23 | 4-6PM PDT
Paul Bramadat (University of Victoria)
“Are You Not Entertained?: What We Can Learn About Yoga from Its Controversies”
[CLICK HERE for more info]
March 30 | 4-6PM PDT
Zoë Slatoff (Loyola Marymount University)
“The Union of Dualities in Theory and Practice”
[CLICK HERE for more info]
April 6 | 4-6PM PDT
Lakshmi Nair (Satya Yoga Cooperative, Denver)
“From Root to Fruit: The Story of Satya Yoga Co-op”
[CLICK HERE for more info]
Detailed Information:
Thursday, March 23, 4-6PM PDT
Paul Bramadat (University of Victoria)
“Are You Not Entertained?: What We Can Learn About Yoga from Its Controversies”
Public controversies about yoga tell us a great deal about the way people think about Asia, religion, spirituality, politics, and the body. This lecture consider two examples of the way yoga has leapt into the public arena. The first is a local case: in 2015 a plan to celebrate the inaugural International Day of Yoga in Vancouver generated a powerful backlash. What might have been for some a public expression of their interest in a trendy wellness activity, and for others a meaningful demonstration of an important spiritual practice, was cancelled just a week after it was announced. What does this scandal teach us about the often bizarre assumptions we make about the world and yoga? The second example involves how people increasingly use yoga to respond to various “traumas.” What does this shift teach us about conventional medicine, complementary medicine, and evolving notions about the body?
Bio:
Paul Bramadat is Professor and Director of the Centre for Studies in Religion and Society at the University of Victoria. He is interested in the ways we imagine religion and spirituality when we talk about wellness, health, diversity, security and civil society. His two most recent research projects involve spirituality in the Pacific Northwest bio-region, and the curious ways postural yoga is reimagined in a globalized world.
ZOOM REGISTRATION LINK:
https://ubc.zoom.us/meeting/register/u5crf-ioqDopG9KX5_7pzkqfZ1Gc4wMYCX1Y
Thursday, March 30, 4-6PDT
Zoë Slatoff (Loyola Marymount University)
“The Union of Dualities in Theory and Practice”
Ask most modern practitioners for a definition of yoga and they will tell you it means “union,” even though this is the exact opposite of the isolation (kaivalya) of the self (puruṣa) from material nature (prakṛti) that is the traditional goal in Patañjali’s Yogasūtras. Over time, Yoga has become more aligned with the Advaitic (non-dual) ideal of oneness rather than with Sāṃkhya, which was principally dualistic. By looking at Sanskrit texts written after Patañjali that incorporate elements of both Yoga and Advaita, we will consider how these boundaries have blurred over time, allowing for the emergence of the modern conceptualization and embodiment of yoga.
Bio:
Zoë Slatoff (PhD, Lancaster Univ.) teaches Sanskrit and Yoga Philosophy in the Yoga Studies program at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, and online courses for the Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies. Her area of specialization is the interface between the Advaita Vedanta school of philosophy and yoga practice within the Aparokṣānubhūti, a text attributed to Ādi Śaṅkara. She taught for many years at her yoga shala in New York, Ashtanga Yoga Upper West Side, and has published a Sanskrit textbook designed for yoga practitioners, Yogāvatāraṇam: The Translation of Yoga.
ZOOM REGISTRATION LINK:
https://ubc.zoom.us/meeting/register/u5crf-ioqDopG9KX5_7pzkqfZ1Gc4wMYCX1Y
Thursday, April 6, 4-6PM PDT
Lakshmi Nair
“From Root to Fruit: The Story of Satya Yoga Co-op”
Lakshmi Nair will engage in dialogue about what brought her to yoga and what keeps her faith in yoga despite all the obstacles and challenges of navigating racism, patriarchy, fundamentalism, settler colonialism, and capitalism in the modern yoga landscape (and life).
Bio:
Lakshmi Nair (she/her) is a yoga educator, based in the lands of the Nuché, Hinono’ei, Tsisistas peoples amongst many others (known by the colonized name Denver, Colorado), and is engaged in reclaiming the pre-patriarchal, non-hierarchical indigenous resilience and resistance of her ancestral tradition of yoga and creating spaces for herself and others to authentically engage with the practices of yoga for self and collective healing and liberation through Satya Yoga Cooperative, a BIPOC-owned and operated yoga cooperative.
ZOOM REGISTRATION LINK:
https://ubc.zoom.us/meeting/register/u5crf-ioqDopG9KX5_7pzkqfZ1Gc4wMYCX1Y