About
Critical Yoga Studies is the first interdisciplinary and transnational journal to focus on the social, cultural, political, and historical dimensions of yoga. From 2016 to 2025, Critical Yoga Studies was published under the name Race and Yoga and featured peer-reviewed articles and personal narratives written by yoga scholars, teachers, and practitioners. The journal’s name change in 2026 reflects the development of critical yoga studies over the last decade and the wide range of approaches and topics that the field encompasses.
Mainstream narratives about yoga in the U.S. often describe how the practice promotes physical and spiritual wellbeing. But, yoga practitioners and scholars rarely question who has had access to the practice since its arrival in North America, and thereby its purportedly healing and liberatory properties. Relatedly, they fail to critically interrogate the representation of the prototypical yogi in contemporary America: upper and middle-class white persons, particularly white women.
Volume 8, Issue 1, 2024
Open Issue
Personal Narratives
Articles
- Weaving Threads of Collective Liberation: Intercultural Wisdom Among Indigenous and South Asian Women in the Indigenous Yoga Collective
This article explores the transformative journey of the Indigenous Yoga Collective (IYC) as a case study integrating a decolonial healing praxis through yoga with Indigenous and South Asian women. The IYC emerged from the First Nations Women’s Yoga Initiative (FNWYI), an 80-hour trauma-informed yoga training designed to foster community connection, cultural reclamation, and collective healing for First Nations peoples. Rooted in a culturally responsive framework, the IYC addresses the shared traumas of colonial oppression while promoting the reconnection of body, mind, spirit, and land. The IYC exemplifies individual and collective healing while fostering cross-cultural solidarity. By centering South Asian voices and Indigenous traditions, the collective provides a model for decolonial wellness frameworks that resist cultural commodification and build reciprocal relationships. Moving forward, the IYC seeks to deepen its impact by co-creating inclusive, accessible programs that honor the rich spiritual traditions of yoga and Indigenous practices while addressing systemic and intergenerational trauma.