Naropa College in Boulder was the primary school in the USA to supply an undergraduate diploma in yoga in 2008. As of 2020, Naropa launched a grasp’s program in yoga research, which is one among solely two such yoga levels within the nation.
Cassandra Smith, who graduated from the primary cohort of scholars within the yoga research grasp’s program in 2023, mentioned it’s “extremely distinctive.”
“There are a number of different colleges within the U.S. that provide a graduate diploma in yoga, however what you get at Naropa is particular,” Smith mentioned. “Your complete curriculum is predicated on a contemplative strategy, which doesn’t power you to simply be an goal observer of yogic traditions. The contemplative strategy of the programs additionally permits you to immerse your self in these traditions, to really apply the meditation directions from historical texts, and to think about what these traditions imply to you on a private stage.”
The bachelor’s diploma in yoga research focuses on practices central to completely different iterations of yoga whereas culminating in a 1,000-hour trainer coaching certificates. Each program ranges discover the event and historical past of yoga, however the grasp’s program dives deeper into the historical past and evolution of yoga by an educational lens.
Ben Williams, professor of Hinduism and yoga research, developed the grasp’s program in yoga research which was launched within the fall of 2020.
“Probably the most distinctive options of this program is its emphasis on contemplative apply as a core precept of studying and research. This attracts on the pioneering work of Naropa College over the past 50 years to seek out methods to combine contemplative parts of the traditions studied into the classroom,” Williams mentioned, in an announcement.
“Within the Yoga Research M.A. this entails going past an mental and theoretical appreciation of the huge historical past of yogic types of meditation to a severe engagement with the knowledge and practices themselves.”
As an business, Williams mentioned, yoga has dramatically expanded in America all through the previous 30 years, together with a proliferation of yoga studios, yoga merchandise, yoga trainer coaching and even music festivals associated to yoga. This enlargement in curiosity led to new scholarship on yoga, in addition to the formation of yoga research as a brand new tutorial discipline.
Professor Nataraja Kallio designed the bachelor’s in yoga research program and its grasp’s program, together with Williams.
“The origins of yoga research at Naropa traces itself to the College’s inception in 1974 when Ram Das taught a course on the Bhagavad Gita to over 1,000 college students,” Kallio mentioned in an electronic mail. “From there, Naropa developed a focus in Yoga Research and ultimately a Bachelor of Arts diploma in 2008, which nonetheless to today is the one accredited B.A. in Yoga Research on this planet.”
The grasp’s program in yoga research is essentially on-line and permits college students to take part from wherever on this planet, whereas gathering in Colorado earlier than the primary and third yr of this system for 2 nine-day in-person retreats at mountain facilities.
College students who earn a level in yoga research can go on to show, together with in highschool and school settings. They’ll additionally go into fields like advertising and communication or proceed their analysis and schooling.
“The M.A. in Yoga Research is designed to function a basis for college students aspiring in direction of doctoral work, introducing them to theories and strategies prevalent within the discipline, providing complete linguistic coaching, and refinement within the artwork of educational writing and analysis,” Smith mentioned.
“Most of our college students are practitioners at coronary heart, and are notably impressed by the way in which this system will enliven and broaden their expertise of yogic traditions of apply.”
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