About Becky

Becky Thompson, PhD, is a scholar, human rights and antiracism activist, cross-cultural trainer, writer, poet and senior-level yoga teacher (RYT-500). She has lectured on race, gender and class issues around the world. Beginning in 2015, Becky has served as a human rights advocate on the front lines of the refugee crisis in Greece, where she has assisted people seeking asylum, documented human rights violations, and taught writing workshops for refugees. Becky has contributed thought-leadership, scholarship and consultation to various groups interested in organizational transformation, yoga principles, contemplative practices, trauma, healing and social justice. She has led cross-cultural training courses that focus upon yoga, poetry, and feminist writing for global audiences.

Becky is the author/editor of thirteen books including This Unruly Witness: June Jordan’s Legacy; Teaching with Tenderness; Survivors on the Yoga Mat: Stories for those Healing from Trauma;  Zero is the Whole I Fall into at Night; A Hunger So Wide and So Deep; and many others. Becky’s writing and activism has been recognized with honors from the Rockefeller Foundation, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the American Association for University Women, the Ford Foundation, Political Research Associates, and the Gustavus Myers Award for Outstanding Books on Human Rights, and the Creative Justice Chapbook Press Poetry Prize. Becky’s current social justice projects include co-editing a collection of poems and essays on the life and legacy of June Jordan (with Lauren Muller, Dominique Hill and Durell Callier).

Photo credit: Laurie Glassman.