15. Mark Singleton | Yoga Body, 10 Years Later

In this episode, we speak with Dr. Mark Singleton about his
journey and career in yoga and academia, his dissertation turned
book Yoga Body and its reception 10 years after
publication,  the "birth" of modern yoga in the 19th and
20th centuries, the contested history of yoga postures (āsana),
as well as his current work on the fascinating relationship
between yoga and technology. We also discuss his upcoming online
course, YS 113 | Yoga's Past, Present, and Future.

Speaker Bio

Mark Singleton’s research interests lie in the intersection
of tradition and modernity in yoga. He was research assistant to
Dr. Elizabeth De Michelis at Cambridge University’s Dharam
Hinduja Institute of Indic Research in 2002-3, and went on to
complete a Ph.D at Cambridge’s Faculty of Divinity on the modern
history of yoga. He taught undergraduate and postgraduate courses
at St. John’s College (Santa Fe, New Mexico) between 2006 and
2013.


His books include Yoga in the Modern World (Routledge 2008, ed.
with Jean Byrne); Yoga Body, The Origins of Modern Posture
Practice (Oxford University Press 2010); Gurus of Modern Yoga
(Oxford University Press 2014, ed. with Ellen Goldberg); and
Roots of Yoga (Penguin Classics, 2017, with James Mallinson). He
has also written numerous articles, book chapters, and
encyclopedia entries on yoga.


His work on the now-concluding 5-year Haṭha Yoga Project focuses
primarily on the history of physical practices that were
incorporated into or associated with yoga in pre-colonial India.
He is involved in the critical editing of three of the project’s
core texts (the Yogacintāmaṇi, Haṭhasaṃketacandrikā and
Haṭhābhyāsapaddhati). He is currently writing a new monograph on
the subject of Yoga and Technology.

Links


https://soas.academia.edu/MarkSingleton

Yoga Body: The Origins of Modern Posture Practice (2010, OUP)

The Yoga of the Haṭhābhyāsapaddhati: Haṭhayoga on the Cusp of
Modernity (2019, Journal of Yoga Studies)

Haṭha Yoga Project