Anya Foxen, Ph.D.

Anya Foxen is a historian and comparativist scholar of religion. She is currently an Associate Professor of Religious Studies at California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, as well as a Research Associate at the Center for the Study of World Religions at Harvard University.

Dr. Foxen holds a Ph.D. from the University of California, Santa Barbara. Her work, to date, has focused on the intersection of South Asian yogic and tantric traditions with Western esotericism and Euro-American metaphysical spiritualities. Her current research examines embodied practices, focusing on theories of the subtle body, aesthetics, and altered states. You can check out Google Scholar for a full list of her academic publications.

She is also a teacher and long-time practitioner of stuff that may or may not be yoga. Her teaching and personal practice are rooted in her scholarship as well as over twenty years of experience in yoga, harmonial somatics, and embodied language work.

Foxen was born in the former Soviet Union, grew up in the New York area, but now considers Santa Barbara her home. She lives there with her partner, a badly behaved Cavapoo, and many bottles of local wine.