Contemplative Practice in Higher Education Workshop

Contemplative Practice in Higher Education

A workshop with Daniel Barbezat, Mirabai Bush, and Rhonda V. Magee
September 23-25, 2016, at the Omega Institute, Rhinebeck, NY

Registration and more information will be available soon.

Supported by the efforts of the Center for Contemplative Mind in Society, faculty, staff and administrators at colleges and universities nationwide are integrating contemplative practices into a wide variety of courses, programs, and services—from physics, art, and management to counseling, student affairs, and faculty development.

Contemplative practices provide opportunities to deepen our attention, broaden our awareness, increase our understanding, help us listen and speak across difference, and open us to new perspectives and creative thinking. By developing awareness of the complex interconnectedness of all life, contemplative practices support students in considering and questioning the impacts of our actions on the world at large.

At this workshop, through presentations, contemplative practice, engaged discussion and  question-and-answer sessions, three leading experts in the field will introduce contemplative pedagogy for academic environments; provide experiential examples of the ways contemplative practices can enrich teaching, research, self-care, and interpersonal interactions; and explore the relationship between personal introspection, the development of meaning and purpose, and engaged action in the world.

Participants will undertake a process of inquiring into their intentions for integrating contemplative practices into their work. This inquiry promotes greater clarity and understanding as participants develop contemplative approaches that respond to their unique educational and institutional interests.

Faculty, administrators, and support staff working throughout higher education are encouraged to attend. No prior experience with contemplative practice is required.

 

Workshop Faculty

Daniel P. Barbezat is professor of economics at Amherst College and the executive director of the Center for Contemplative Mind in Society. He has been a visiting professor at Northwestern University and Yale University and has taught in the summer program at Harvard University. He is coauthor, with Mirabai Bush, of Contemplative Practices in Higher Education.

Mirabai Bush is cofounder, former executive director, and a senior fellow of the Center for Contemplative Mind in Society. Coauthor of Contemplative Practices in Higher Education, she has developed contemplative programs and taught leaders in higher education, law, business, activism, and more. She also coauthored Compassion in Action with Ram Dass.

Rhonda V. Magee, JD, is professor of law at the University of San Francisco, where she teaches, among other things, a course called Contemplative Lawyering. She is author of “Contemplative Practices and the Renewal of Legal Education” in the book New Directions in Teaching and Learning: Contemplative Studies in Higher Education. She is dedicated to exploring the inter-relationships between law, philosophy, and notions of justice and humanity, with a commitment to listening to, and retelling the stories of, the impact of law on the lives of traditionally marginalized and subordinated people.

 

Supported in part by