CFP: Yoga and Visual Culture: An Interdisciplinary Symposium (Freer & Sackler Galleries, Washington DC)

Posted January 6, 2013

This symposium invites papers that explore yoga’s histories, meanings, transformations, or practices through the lens of visual culture.

Twenty years ago, yoga was largely understood as a monolithic and unchanging tradition. While today we have a far richer understanding of yoga’s historical transformations and trans-sectarian manifestations, visual culture – ranging from sectarian, court and popular imagery to architecture and photography — remains the least tapped of archival resources.

Preference will be given to papers that foreground the potential of visual culture to historicize aspects of yoga over the last two millennia. We welcome proposals that examine yogic constructs (e.g. embodiment, guru, philosophical traditions); illuminate social roles and perceptions of yogis (e.g. militant ascetics); interrogate text-driven or anthropologically-based perspectives on yoga, or provide new insights into regional, tran-sectarian, or chronological transformations.

Scholars from all disciplines are encouraged to submit proposals for 30-minute papers meant for both scholars and general audiences. The symposium will be webcast. Travel, hotel and per diem funds will be provided.

Deadline for abstracts (maximum 250 words and 2 – 3 attached images) February 4, 2013

Symposium date: November 22-23, 2013, Freer and Sackler Galleries, Smithsonian Institution, Washington D.C.

The symposium accompanies the exhibition, Yoga: The Art of Transformation at the Sackler Gallery, October 19, 2013-January 26, 2014,http://www.asia.si.edu/exhibitions/future.asp

Please send abstracts or direct questions to:
Nancy Micklewright
Head, Scholarly Programs and Publications
Freer|Sackler Galleries
micklewrightn@si.edu
202.633.0401