Anxieties of Authenticity: American Yoga and the Problem of Whiteness –
Dr. Amanda Lucia
Speaker: Dr. Amanda Lucia, Associate Professor, UCR
In this time of racial conversations, have you ever wondered how yoga – which originated in India – became a white multi-billion dollar commercial enterprise in America? Telescoping on a case study of modern postural yoga, Dr. Amanda Lucia discusses the intersections of race and religion, suggesting that the transience and mobility of modern globalization have produced simultaneously a determined quest for roots and a flippant disregard for lineage, both of which are derived from a preoccupation with authenticity.Amanda Lucia (MA, PhD, University of Chicago) is an Associate Professor of Religious Studies at University of California-Riverside. Her forthcoming book, White Utopias: Spirituality, Transformational Festivals, and American Yoga, focuses on race and American adoptions of Indic spirituality. Her first book, Reflections of Amma: Devotees in a Global Embrace focused on transnationalism and gender in a global guru movement. Her articles have been published in leading journals in the field.