This summer school provides an introduction to yoga studies with classes on key aspects of yoga history, philosophy, and contemporary practice. The course is structured into sections: textual history, philosophy, ethnography and bodily practice, Sanskrit language, and critical thought. The history section will constitute the primary focus of study and will draw on the expertise of the SOAS Haṭha Yoga Project team to survey the history of hatha yoga through Sanskrit texts. The philosophy classes will introduce students to key concepts in classical yoga and to contextual readings of the Pātañjalayogaśāstra. In the ethnography class, students will reflect on ways to analyse experience and movement in postural yoga in relation to historical texts. The course also provides an introduction to key terms in the Sanskrit language for yoga studies and to scholarship on critical issues in contemporary yoga.
The summer school will be taught by the research team of the Haṭha Yoga Project (Drs James Mallinson, Mark Singleton, Daniela Bevilacqua, and Jason Birch) and other specialist scholars from SOAS and beyond. The full teaching schedule and booking details are on our website: