Call for Papers: Race and Yoga Journal 5.1 (2020)
The Race and Yoga editorial board is currently seeking articles, personal narratives, and creative works for the fifth issue of the journal featuring a thematic cluster on “South Asian Voices on Yoga.”
Yoga, a practice that originated in the Indian subcontinent, now claims millions of practitioners worldwide. If for much of its history yoga enjoyed a modest following in the West, in recent years, Westerners have flocked to the practice. Despite its South Asian origins, South Asian voices are often invisibilized or obscured in mainstream yoga practice and discourse. We invite theoretical, empirical, personal, or creative work that interrogates the spread of yoga from its roots in South Asia to its recent global boom.
Possible topics may include:
Cultural Appropriation
Mantras,Mudras, and Mispronunciations
Bhakti Yoga and AmericanKirtan Culture
Religious Imagery and Iconography
Spiritual Bypassing
Tokenization
Yoga and the Politics of Hindu Fundamentalism
Yoga and Western Capitalism
Whitewashing/Erasure
Globalization
Migration and Second/Third Generation South Asian Perspectives
Yoga and Fitness culture in Contemporary India
Representation of India in Yoga Spaces
International Yoga Day
Yoga Controversies
Yoga Lineages and Proliferation of Multiple Styles
Indigenous Knowledges, Branding, and Certification
Performing Authenticity, Authority and Expertise
Gurus, Lineages, “Post-Lineages”
Yoga Stewardship
Yoga and Religion
Race and Caste Privilege and Yoga “Ownership”
Yoga Tourism to South Asia
Who Teaches and Who Attends? (e.g. Race and Gender)
Transnational Capitalism
Retreats and Teacher Trainings
Visa and Immigration Issues
Movement Studies
Intersections Between Yoga and Other Movement Practices (i.e. Indian Dance/Martial Arts)
Art-based Approaches to (Re)claiming Yoga
Queer Studiesש
Queer Identity and Yoga Philosophy
Queer South Asian Identity and/in Yoga Spaces
Open Call
In addition to our thematic cluster amplifying “South Asian voices,”Race and Yoga invites additional submissions of any kind that align with the journal’s Aims and Scopes.