BIG News! YS + BSO Merger

Today marks a pivotal moment in Yogic Studies history and an incredible boon for Yogic Studies and Buddhist Studies Online students, as the two platforms merge into one convenient location for all things Yogic and Buddhist Studies, all under the existing Yogic Studies platform.

Beginning today, the Yogic Studies Course Library will include all previously-aired BSO courses for self-study (now bearing the prefix "BS"), and all future Buddhist Studies courses will be hosted through the Yogic Studies site. For existing and future YS students, this means access to a wider range of courses and faculty members, whose curriculum content and research expertise allow for more robust engagement with yogic and Indic traditions across religious borders. Students of the former BSO platform will now find their courses housed within their Yogic Studies Course Library*, for which they will have received an invitation email. Yogic Studies Members can now peruse all previously-aired BSO courses in their existing Course Library.  

This curricular expansion marks an important shift for Yogic Studies toward the broader manifold of South Asian Studies, and opens the door for future courses that explore religious studies theory and methodology, as well as more niche but important topics such as Yoga and Sufism, Jain Traditions, and much more. We are excited to witness the cross-pollination that this broadened curriculum will promote, and ecstatic to offer a common space for students to generate these rich and fruitful exchanges. 

The merger is also marked by a revamped look and feel to the Yogic Studies Website, including a more navigable Courses page, expanded Faculty page, and a new Team subsection where students can get to know the friendly faces behind the Yogic Studies platform. Internally, students will find similar revamping to their Course Library, which displays all YS and BS courses side-by-side and allows students to tab to YS, BS, 100-level, 200-level, language courses, Advanced Certificate Programs (ACP), and more. Additionally, all YS and BS courses are now interconnected via the Circle Community introduced in late 2021; archives of previous Community pages are available in the Course Readings + Resources section of each course. 

The Yogic Studies Team is hopeful that the benefits of this union will continue to blossom for many years to come! For questions, comments, and concerns, please feel encouraged to reach out to the Yogic Studies inbox at [email protected]. 

 *BSO Members are invited to discontinue their BSO Membership and enroll in the YS Membership Program for continued access to courses. BSO will remain open for study until August 31, 2022. 

To celebrate the merger and answer questions, Founder and Director, Seth Powell, hosted an information session for students upon launch which includes a new site tour and Q&A (below).