About me
Tobias Wiggins is an assistant professor of women and gender studies at Athabasca University. His research centers transgender mental health, queer and trans visual culture, clinical transphobia, accessible community-based wellness, and psychoanalysis. Broadly, Wiggins’ work aims to address the continued psychiatric pathologization of gender variance and to support the efficacy of trans-competent medical care. At AU, he coordinates the University Certificate in Counselling Women, an interdisciplinary program which applies contemporary feminist theory to the practice of counselling.
Yoga Bio:
As a queer transgender man with a complex history of trauma I have have struggled throughout my life to find adequate and meaningful healthcare, and in particular, healing that would allow me to truly reconnect with my body. For over 20 years, I have consistently returned to yoga and meditation as a gentle, reliable way to re-discover a physical and cognitive interrelation. My unique background as an academic, advocate, and queer person has inspired me to combine activism with wholistic somatic practices. I teach yoga to marginalized communities in a way that is trauma informed, accessible to all, and fundamentally political. Through intentional movement I aim to shift people’s lives - especially those who face social injustice - by facilitating a connection to internal knowledge and resilience.
I act as a consultant and educator for the yoga community. I offer YTT curriculum that focuses on social justice issues including transgender competency, consent, white privilege and racism. In 2018, I acted as a consultant for the Yoga Alliance Equity Task Force, and in 2017 I was the distinguished recipient of Yoga Alliance Foundation’s Aspiring Yoga Teacher Scholarship which is awarded to yoga practitioners with a high level of leadership and community service expertise. I also directed the popular open access video You Are Here: Exploring Yoga and the Impacts of Cultural Appropriation, which addresses yoga’s relationship to colonization and racism. You can hear me talk about consent on Yoga International’s podcast, and my writing has appeared in blogs, anthologies on trauma, and accessible yoga guides.
