#9 Upcoming yoga studies events
Various exciting things coming up in the world of yoga studies, more details below.
Firstly, if you missed the previous talk on the wonderful MANTRAMS project, you can catch up here on YouTube.
And do check the rest of the channel for loads more fascinating yoga talks.
Summer online conference: "Tracing the Threads of Yoga"
My yoga studies partner in crime, Ruth McNeil, and I will be taking part in a panel towards the end of this conference which I’m very grateful to be involved in. What a great line up of excellent scholars and lovely humans.
Registration is now open for it, the 2025 Yoga Darśana Yoga Sādhana (YDYS) online conference, a collaborative event hosted by YDYS, yogaresearch.org, and Arihanta Institute: with the theme "Tracing the Threads of Yoga". It is on August 8, 9, & 10, 2025, 9AM-12PM Pacific Time (daily). The conference website is https://2025ydys.arihantainstitute.org/ and the conference agenda features 3 keynote lectures and 6 panels addressing common questions that emerge in Yoga Studies scholarship and yoga practice, and uniquely combines the voices of scholars and practitioners of yoga traditions. You can register here.
Straps, Mats & Huts: a visual history of yoga - with Dr Seth Powell - June 18 - @King's College London
Alas in person only, so not much help if you aren’t in London, but if you are, Seth is a really interesting speaker and researcher and this should be well worth going to. Free event on three historical yogic objects—straps, maps, and huts—as documented in Indian sculpture and paintings, which reveal various dimensions of lived yoga practice: material props as accoutrements to aid yogic praxis, physical dwellings, and an environment in close proximity to animals and the natural world. Book here https://buytickets.at/kingscollegelondon4/1701505
Online Book Discussion – Metaphysics as Therapy
I do love Karl-Stéphan Bouthillette’s perspectives on yoga. His piece on Hermeneutic Praxis: the Yoga of Reason(ing) is a favourite paper, fascinating and moving. Jason Birch and Mikel Burley are also brilliant scholars. So I’m definitely interested in this from the SOAS Centre of Yoga Studies (even though “list-making” sounds rather dry, I recognise this “listing” habit in historic yogic texts and would love to find out more about how it relates to the philosophy and practice).
“SOAS Centre of Yoga Studies is delighted to bring together three internationally renowned scholars of yoga and Indian philosophy to discuss a groundbreaking new publication in the field: Metaphysics as Therapy: List-Making and Renunciation in Gnostic Yogas (Springer, 2025), by Dr. Karl-Stéphan Bouthillette.
The event features a conversation between Dr. Bouthillette, Assistant Professor at MAHE Manipal, and two distinguished respondents: Dr. Jason Birch, co-Director of the Yogacintāmani Project and Senior Research Fellow of the Light on Hatha Yoga Project, and Dr. Mikel Burley, Associate Professor of Religion and Philosophy at the University of Leeds.”
Register here https://yso.soas.ac.uk/product/karl-stephan-bouthillette-metaphysics-as-therapy/.
Volume 6: Journal of Yoga Studies
All free and available online! In their own words: This exciting publication includes critical discussions on topics such as: the Tibetan Amṛtasiddhi texts by Amoghavajra; the origins of sūryanamaskār; the hand gesture, cinmudrā; and the cakras of tantric yoga.
Read it here https://journalofyogastudies.org/index.php/JoYS/issue/view/JoYS.V6.
Finally, as ever, whilst I am quite busy at the moment organising a Biosphere Festival, I am always interested in opportunities to come share yogic scholarship. Let me know what you are interested in! And please pass on this newsletter and encourage others to sign up if you think they would be interested
Happy studies!
Best wishes, Martha @ IntoYoga