The Contemplative Studies Unit at the American Academy of Religion is sponsoring three panels at the annual conference in Denver, CO from November 19-22, 2022:
| Engaging The Soul of Higher Education: Contemplative Pedagogy, Research, and Institutional Life for the Twenty-first Century (Information Age Publishing, 2019) . Christian Spirituality Unit and Contemplative Studies Unit. Saturday, 12:30-2:30. In-person at the HyattRegency-Mineral B (Third Level). The Soul of Higher Education explores such questions as “How can a contemplative culture be nurtured in the classroom? What difference does that culture make in teaching and learning? What is the role of individual and institutional leadership in creating and sustaining this culture? What is an appropriate epistemological grounding for contemplative higher education? We gather a variety of presenters to discuss ways in which contemplative pedagogy, research and institutional life might be advanced, both in the field of Christian Spirituality and in the field of Contemplative Studies. We will explore lacunae that remain in the discussion, and in the volume, in particular, and offer fresh ways forward, for example, in connecting contemplative studies to social justice efforts. Presiding Anita Houck, Saint Mary’s College, Indiana Panelists Margaret Benefiel, Shalem Institute For Spiritual Formation Mary Frohlich, Catholic Theological Union Stephanie Paulsell, Harvard University Daniel Barbezat, Amherst College Responding Bo Karen Lee, Princeton Theological Seminary Leonard McMahon, Graduate Theological Union |
| Contemplation, Ecology, and the Post-Human. Contemplative Studies Unit. Saturday, 3:00-4:30. In-person at Convention Center-107 (Street Level). Driven both by the internal contradictions and limitations of anthropocentric theories of religion and by the challenges of a world increasingly beset by mass extinction, climate change, and other ecological disruptions, many religious studies scholars have sought to reimagine the field in a non-anthropocentric or posthuman manner. What might this look like from the standpoint of Contemplative Studies and how might the latter contribute to the effort to rethink our scholarship beyond dualistic or bifurcated accounts of a world divided between nature and culture or the human and the nonhuman? How can such reimagining better equip us to address ecological and environmental challenges both in the world and in our classrooms? In this session, panelists will consider such questions from a variety of angles: from the practical aid that contemplative approaches may give to engaged environmental action, to the theoretical challenges that contemplative traditions pose for the new posthumanities, to the pedagogical salience of critical first-person reflection on contemplative practices within classrooms engaging the various crises and metacrisis of our time. Presiding Niki Clements, Rice University Panelists Jessica Beaudette, Arizona State University Transcending Disciplines: Contemplative Approaches to Biodiversity and Climate Science Sam Mickey, University of San Francisco Contemplative Posthuman Design: Reclaiming Attention and Re-Placing the Human Daan Oostveen, Utrecht University Posthuman Religion Wendy Petersen-Boring, Willamette University Andrew Dreitcer, Claremont School of Theology The Inner Life of Activism and The Conversation Project: Alternative Contemplative Pedagogies to Revitalize Higher Education Responding Jacob Sherman, California Institute of Integral Studies |
| Contemplative Praxis: Its Roots in Traditional Religious Praxis in Relation to Contemporary Concerns. Contemplative Studies Unit. Sunday, 5:00-6:30. In-person at Convention Center-108 (Street Level). These four papers forming this panel address the tensions between traditional forms of religiosity and the contemplative practices entailed in these traditions as these practices are interpreted and rewritten for our contemporary world. The first paper offers a way of understanding traditional Hindu practices of devotion founding the medieval sect of Gauḍiya Vaiṣṇavism, arguing that we perhaps ought to expand our understanding of contemplative praxis to incorporate a notion of interrelationship beyond a simple notion of enlightenment as a realization of self. The second paper draws from the 14th century Christian text to trace the development of its popularity for a contemporary contemplative Christianity as a way of incorporating meditative praxis within Christianity. The third paper urges us to reconsider our stereotypes of bhakti, typified as simple emotive praxis, in light of its deliberate cognitive mental elements, through a close examination of the19th century lyric poem by the Hindu monk Nishkulanand Swami. The final paper shines a light on the nonreciprocal appropriations of indigenous medicines and psychedelics in a contemporary West that does not acknowledge or return benefit derived from these practices to the indigenous communities that pioneered them. Presiding Harold D. Roth, Brown University Panelists Eileen Goddard, University of California, Santa Barbara Meditation and Correct Perception in the Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇava Tradition Stephen Molvarec, Boston College Thomas Keating’s “Blend of Teas”: Keating as a Reader and Interpreter of The Cloud of Unknowing Iva Patel, Augsburg University “Enlightening the Mind-Heart”: Mechanics of Contemplation in Swaminarayan Hindu Devotion Yuria Celidwen, Independent Scholar Spirit Medicine beyond Mind Medicine: Indigenous Ethics for Western Psychedelic Research Responding Loriliai Biernacki, University of Colorado |