Chiara M . Travisi

Chiara M. Travisi is both an economist and an insider of the current yoga movement of which she has been active part since the early 2000s when she founded the Iyengar Yoga Institute Milano, endorsed by the Ramamani Iyengar Memorial Yoga Institute (RIMYI) in Pune, India. As an economist, she holds a Ph.D in “Economics and Business Administration” from the Free University of Amsterdam (Dept. of Spatial Economics), with a specialization on the economic analyses of the so-called non-market goods and services, such as culture and the environment. Before leaving the academic career to devote herself entirely to the study of yoga, Chiara published several articles in peer-reviewed high impact journals (for example: Ecological Economics, Environmental & Resource Economics), took part in international research projects funded by the European Commission (on biodiversity, agro-chemicals and climate change), taught Regional and Urban economics at the Politecnico of Milano (Dept. of Management Economics) and Environmental Valuation within the Master in “Science and Management of Climate Change” of the Cà Foscari University of Venice. In 2018 she completed her Master in “Yoga Studies” from the Cà Foscari University of Venice with a thesis on “The Economics of Yoga”, under the supervision of Prof. Federico Squarcini. In the last five years she has been studying the economic history of yoga and the process of yoga commodification in particular, to understand how
microeconomic and macroeconomic dynamics have influenced the ‘yoga’ ascetic knowledge straddling its modern era and how they continue to influence the current global yoga movement. Currently, she contributes to the Yoga Studies Master’s program as a speaker on the economic history of yoga ascetic traditions, offering a deepening on the transformation of this asset from a non-market heritage good into a mass product. In the Italian yoga community, she has been directly involved in the process that led to the drafting and publication of UNI Norm on the “Professional Figure of the Yoga Teacher” (UNI 11661), within the ISO (International Organization for Standardization) system of accreditation and certification. Since 2012, Chiara collaborates with the Board of the Italian Iyengar Yoga Association of which she coordinates the Profession and Qualification commission. She is also teacher trainer and examinator within the Iyengar Yoga lineage.