A black and white photo of Aly, taken outdoors in natural light. She has blonde hair and blue eyes, and is looking at the camera and smiling. She is wearing a black top with a floral print, and a ring on her necklace.

A black and white photo of Aly, taken outdoors in natural light. She has blonde hair and blue eyes, and is looking at the camera and smiling. She is wearing a black top with a floral print, and a ring on her necklace.

Aly Bailey

SSHRC-funded Postdoctoral Fellow

abaile09@uoguelph.ca

Aly Bailey is a postdoctoral fellow working under the supervision of Dr. Carla Rice. She recently defended her PhD dissertation titled “Designing and implementing BIAS (Body Image Awareness Seminars): A positive body image program”. This action research project involved working with a diversity of people from the community to co-create a positive body image program to improve body image experiences. 

Her postdoctoral program will extend her doctoral work to exploring embodiment experiences and yoga. As a yoga instructor for the last few years she observed and experienced the exclusionary nature of the Western yoga industry. To challenge the dominant stereotypes within yoga, she will co-design a decolonized and inclusive yoga curriculum with non-normatively embodied people – placing bodily differences at the center rather than at the margins.