Yoga Consultation Program

[Stuart Ray Sarbacker]

Dear Colleagues,

I have included below our program for the inaugural sessions of the  
Yoga in Theory and Practice Consultation to be held during the  
American Academy of Religion Annual Meeting, November 18-26, 2006, in  
Washington D.C. I am pleased to tell you that our first call for  
papers was quite successful, and as a result we are having two  
sessions in the main program, and two that will be presented through  
the DANAM (Dharma Association of North America) sessions that run  
concurrently with the AAR meetings.

The two AAR sessions deal with issues relating to the formation of  
"modern" yoga and the motivations behind contemporary yoga and tantra  
practice. We have brought together an eclectic group of panelists and  
presenters that I am certain will bring some quite varying and  
compelling ideas to the table on these topics. The two DANAM sessions  
deal with broader questions in defining "yoga" or the plurality of  
"yogas," and the more topical question of what possible relationships  
exist between yoga and ecological practice and discourse. Given the  
historical moment (both in terms of the larger "zeitgeist," and  
within our disciplines), we anticipate that these will be quite  
energetic panels.

I have posted the information on the sessions below. Hope to see you  
in Washington.

Best Wishes,
Stuart Sarbacker
Northwestern University

*****

A18-131
Yoga in Theory and Practice Consultation
Saturday - 4:00 pm-6:30 pm  CC209B

Stuart R. Sarbacker, Northwestern University, Presiding

Theme:  Construction and Transcendence in Modern Yoga

Panelists:

Sarah Strauss, University of Wyoming
Elizabeth DeMichelis, Cambridge University
N.E. Sjoman, Calgary, Alberta
Joseph Alter, University of Pittsburgh

Responding:

Christopher Chapple, Loyola Marymount University

Business Meeting:

Stuart R. Sarbacker, Northwestern University, Presiding

Christopher Chapple, Loyola Marymount University, Presiding


A19-93
New Religious Movements Group and Yoga in Theory and Practice  
Consultation
Sunday - 3:00 pm-4:30 pm   CC209B

Lloyd Pflueger, Truman State University, Presiding

Theme:  Embodiment, Empowerment, and Commodification in Contemporary  
Yoga and Tantra

Shreena Gandhi, University of Florida
The Practice of Yoga in the US: Bridging the Mind and Body and  
Religion and the Market

Klas Nevrin, University of Stockholm
Empowerment and Embodiment in Modern Yoga: Styles and Modes of  
Postural Practice in Ashtanga Vinyasa Training

Michelle Demeter, University of South Florida
Yoga: Its Transmission and Commodification in the United States

Madhu Khanna, Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts
Whose Tantra?  Reimagining Bazari Tantra as a Significant Category of  
Discourse in the Study of Tantrism

Responding:

Richard King, Vanderbilt University


AM17-54
Dharma Association of North America (DANAM) – Session Yoga 1
Friday 1:00pm – 3:45pm         Grand Hyatt Washington - Burnham

Re-imagining Yoga, Imagining Yoga-s
Jeffrey C. Ruff, Marshall University, Convener
Ramdas Lamb, University of Hawaii at Manoa,  Presiding

Jeffrey C. Ruff, Marshall University
Re-imagining Yoga, Imagining Yoga-s

Ian Whicher, University of Manitoba
Kaivalya in the Yoga Sutra: Ultimate Disengagement or Engagement?

Sthaneshwar Timalsina, San Diego State University
Nath Yoga: Union of the Body and the Cosmos

Jeffrey Stephen Lidke, Berry College
The Royal Wisdom: Power or Transcendence? That is the question

Alfred Collins, Anchorage, AK
Dharma Cloud Samadhi: The Other Side of Release (kaivalya) in  
Patanjali's Yoga Sutra and the Samkhya Karika

Beverley Foulks, Harvard University
Super Samskara-s: Soteriological Subliminal Impressions in  
Patanjali's Yoga-Sutra


AM19-20
Dharma Association of North America (DANAM) –Session Yoga 2
Sunday 9:00am – 11:45am     Grand Hyatt Washington - Burnham

Yoga and Ecology
Christopher Chapple, Loyola Marymount University, Convener
Daniel Michon, Loyola Marymount University, Presiding

Knut Axel Jacobsen, University of Bergen
The Disharmony of Interdependence: Samkhya-Yoga and Ecology

Christopher Chapple, Loyola Marymount University
Connecting Body, Senses, and Elements: Yoga and the Process of  
Ecological Restoration

Vijaya Nagarajan, University of San Francisco
Yoga as Metaphor: Ecology, the Feminine, and the Kolam

Laura Cornell, California Institute of Integral Studies
A Model for Eight Paths of Green Yoga

Suzanne Ironbiter, SUNY Purchase College
Yoga and Nature: Vital Concentration in Atharva Veda




Stuart Ray Sarbacker
Northwestern University
s-sarbacker at northwestern.edu
http://www.religion.northwestern.edu/faculty/sarbacker.html