Project

Embodying the Feminine Divine: Agency, Subjectivity and Cultural Alterity in Women's Yogic Retreats

Acronym
G006217N
Code
3G006217W
Duration
01 January 2017 → 31 December 2020
Funding
Research Foundation - Flanders (FWO)
Research disciplines
  • Natural sciences
    • Other biological sciences
    • Other natural sciences
Keywords
yoga
 
Project description

Yoga, as other new spiritual and well-being practices, has gained a lot in popularity in Western Europe, especially among women. This research project concerns an ethnographic study of yogic women retreats that intend to enhance positive awareness of the female body and highlight its sacred dimension. It aims to uncover the participants’and retreat leaders’agency in redefining femininity and developing their female subjectivity in reference to cultural otherness. The study is situated in the field of gender studies in religion and draws on theoretical insights from feminist theory and contemporary studies of religion, spirituality and secularism. It adopts an anthropological approach that puts the women’ experiences at the centre of analysis and highlights the insider’ point of view. Multi-sited ethnographic fieldwork and in-depth interviews in a transnational context (Belgium, Netherlands, UK) will be the main methods used to realize this approach. Through its empirical dimension, the project aims to correct the theoretical and textbased bias in most studies of new spirituality. It will contribute, in following the postsecular turn in feminism, to discuss notions of gender, agency and empowerment beyond the model of liberal equality, with implications for feminist theories of sexual difference and gendered subjectivity. The output includes eight articles in peer-reviewed journals, the organization of a conference and the codirection of a special journal issue.