Dear Members,
You might find the following panels, sponsored by the Yoga in Theory and Practice Unit, to be of interest as you're planning your schedule for next weekend's meeting of the AAR.
Please note that the YTP business meeting is scheduled following our panel on Saturday, 5:30 PM–7:00 PM Hilton Bayfront-Aqua 305 (Third Level).
We look forward to seeing you in San Diego!
Best wishes,
Sravana Borkataky-Varma and Anya Foxen
Chairs, Yoga in Theory and Practice Unit
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A23-222
Hinduism Unit and Religion in South Asia Unit and Yoga in Theory and Practice Unit
Theme: A Beautiful Sunset: The Legacy of Gerald James Larson (1938–2019)
Saturday, 1:00 PM–3:00 PM Convention Center-2 (Upper Level West)
This panel will address the legacy of Gerald James Larson, an internationally renowned scholar of the philosophies, religions, and cultures of India, who passed away in April 2019. The panelists will explore Larson’s contributions, as one of the world’s foremost authorities on the Sāṃkhya and Yoga systems of religious thought, to the development of Sāṃkhya studies and Yoga studies in the academy through his seminal works Classical Sāṃkhya: An Interpretation of Its History and Meaning (1969), Sāṃkhya: A Dualist Tradition in Indian Philosophy (1987), and Yoga: India’s Philosophy of Meditation (2008), culminating in Classical Yoga Philosophy and the Legacy of Sāṃkhya (2018). The panelists will also reflect on Larson’s contributions, as a scholar and mentor, to a range of other fields, including the study of tantric traditions; systems of Indian medicine; religion, politics, and law in modern India; Indian traditions of visual arts; and the cross-cultural philosophy of religion.
John Nemec, University of Virginia, Presiding
Panelists:
Barbara A. Holdrege, University of California, Santa Barbara
Tracy Pintchman, Loyola University, Chicago
Knut Axel Jacobsen, University of Bergen
Lloyd W. Pflueger, Truman State University
Paul E. Muller-Ortega, Blue Throat Yoga
P. Pratap Kumar, University of Kwazulu
Natal David Haberman, Indiana University
Joseph Prabhu, California State University, Los Angeles
Pravrajika Vrajaprana, Vedanta Society of Southern California
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A23-445
Yoga in Theory and Practice Unit
Theme: Consumption for Transcendence: Foodways, Diet, and Drugs in Yoga Practice
Saturday, 5:30 PM–7:00 PM Hilton Bayfront-Aqua 305 (Third Level)
Combining philological, ethical, historical, and ethnographic voices, this 90-minute panel addresses yogic practices of consumption particularly as they relate to foodways, diet, and drugs. Our approach is purposefully broad in scope, drawing from both pre-modern and modern sources in order to initiate a conversation concerning categories of yogic practice that fall under the umbrella of “consumption” that have received little focused attention in yoga studies. Our papers individually and collectively demonstrate how studying yogic practices of consumption propels yoga scholarship into a discussion of the relationship between yoga and other fields of textual inquiry (e.g. ayurvedic, tantric, alchemical) as well as into an investigation of wider cultural logics wherein we encounter yoga practitioners in health food stores, eating nationalist food products, and/or attending ayahuasca retreats in the ethnographic present. This panel thus also suggests new methodologies for studying the category of “yoga” from both theoretical and practical perspectives.
Seth Powell, Harvard University, Presiding
Patricia Sauthoff, University of Alberta
Water As Elixir of Longevity: A Rasāyana Practice from the Ānandakanda
Jonathan Dickstein, University of California, Santa Barbara
Before They Were Food: Wasting and Weaponizing Animals in Yoga Gastropolitics
Nirinjan Khalsa, Loyola Marymount University
Creating Healthy, Happy, Holy Yogis through Vegetarianism, Ayurveda, and Kundalini Yoga
Christa Kuberry, Yoga Alliance, Arlington, VA
American Yoga and the Substance of Substances
Christopher Patrick Miller, Loyola Marymount University
Yogic Foodways at Kaivalyadham: Achieving Liberation through BioMoral Consumption
Responding: Stuart R. Sarbacker, Oregon State University
Business Meeting: Sravana Borkataky-Varma, University of North Carolina, Wilmington, and Anya Foxen, California Polytechnic State University, Presiding
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A24-340
Yoga in Theory and Practice Unit
Theme: Yoga Across Boundaries: New Technologies and Changing Practices
Sunday, 3:30 PM–5:00 PM Hilton Bayfront-Sapphire D (Fourth Level)
This roundtable discussion focuses on the impact of current and emerging technologies on the evolution of various forms of yoga. Specifically, four presenters will contribute material on: the co-construction of modern yoga across cyberspaces, the innovative internet business model of YogaGlo, online Jain yoga, and finally, Yoga Bhavadhara, a new form of modern postural yoga, which incorporates digital projectors, simulated environments, and online streaming audio services. The panel also features two responders, who will add to the discussion from both a more traditional academic angle, as well as assessing the popular practitioner-oriented and business dimension of the presentations.
Sravana Borkataky-Varma, University of North Carolina, Wilmington, Presiding
Panelists:
Matteo Di Placido, University of Milan - Bicocca
Derek Mills, YogaGlo, Santa Monica, CA
Darren Iammarino, San Diego Mesa College
Responding:
Sthaneshwar Timalsina, San Diego State University
Christa Kuberry, Yoga Alliance, Arlington, VA
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A25-306
Buddhism Unit and Law, Religion, and Culture Unit, and Yoga in Theory and Practice Unit
Theme: Author-Meets-Critics: Panel Discussion of Debating Yoga and Mindfulness in Public Schools: Reforming Secular Education or Reestablishing Religion? (University of North Carolina Press, 2019) by Candy Gunther Brown
Monday, 3:30 PM–5:00 PM Convention Center-20A (Upper Level East)
The 2019 publication of Debating Yoga and Mindfulness in Public Schools: Reforming Secular Education or Reestablishing Religion? by Candy Gunther Brown (University of North Carolina Press), the conference theme Scholarly Workers in Public Spaces, and our location in San Diego constitute a remarkable convergence. In the 2013 court case Sedlock v. Baird, parents sued San Diego’s Encinitas Union School District for indoctrinating children in Hinduism and Buddhism by teaching Ashtanga yoga and mindfulness. Both parties enlisted religious studies scholars, among them Brown, as expert witnesses. Brown draws on experience in Sedlock and three additional legal challenges to assess ethical and legal implications, foregrounding values of respect for cultural and religious diversity, informed consent, transparency, and voluntarism. This author-meets-critics panel facilitates conversation among scholars who have been involved and/or analyzed the stakes when yoga and mindfulness are practiced and debated in public spaces. It seeks to model civic discourse across difference.
Richard K. Payne, Graduate Theological Union, Presiding
Panelists:
Andrea Jain, Indiana University - Purdue University, Indianapolis
David McMahan, Franklin and Marshall College
Ronald Purser, San Francisco State University
Steven Green, Willamette University
Responding: Candy Gunther Brown, Indiana University
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Dr. Sravana Borkataky-Varma
Faculty
Religious Studies Program
University of Houston
Co-Chair, American Academy of Religion, Yoga in Theory and
Practice