Contemplative Practices and Acts of Resistance in Higher Education by Chatman, Michelle C.; Costa, LeeRay; Robinson-Morris, David W.;

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Contributors share practices and acts of resistance to demonstrate what it means to be a contemplative practitioner attentive to issues of power, racism, and marginalization in higher education today. Chapters feature personal stories and descriptions of contemplative practices for readers to use in their own contexts.

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The contributors to this volume – educators, student affairs practitioners, and higher education staff – heartfully share a broad range of contemplative practices and acts of resistance used within the confines of shattered systems and institutions for themselves, their colleagues, and their students. The narratives in this volume broadly imagine, inspire, recount, and guide readers toward the fullness of their humanity and wholeness within institutions of higher education. At the same time, these accounts navigate the operational realities of daunting demands on the mind, body, and spirit, the growing turbulence of working on higher education campuses across the country, and a sense of urgency toward collective life affirmation within modern higher education institutions. Each chapter features critical framing of a concept, personal stories of this concept in action, and descriptions of contemplative practices for readers to use in their own contexts. Together, chapter authors demonstrate what it means to be a contemplative practitioner attentive to issues of power, racism, and marginalization in higher education today. With a deep breath and mindful awareness, this book invites faculty and staff at colleges and universities on a transformational journey with the contributors toward fullness in pursuit of becoming whole and inspiring change.

"This book is a wise and wildly creative guide to transforming higher education into a place where we can truly explore what it means to be human and work toward healing, toward becoming whole. Edited and written by some of the most experienced, committed, and grounded practitioners in the field, it includes fearless explorations of the contemplative to increase appreciation of interconnection, impermanence, community, the body, and pedagogies of love. It is the inspiration we need to meet the formidable demands of this time and turn the campus into a home where we all belong." 

Mirabai Bush, Founder, Center for Contemplative Mind in Society and Association for Contemplative Mind in Higher Education, USA.

"In this beautifully written volume, the essayists generously offer their reflections and contemplative practices to academics feeling pressured to show up as fragmented, disembodied versions of themselves. With testimonials and a range of contemplative rituals, this guide can ground readers and bolster their capacity to (re)connect with and rely on their inner wisdom. Mindfully being in conversation with the authors’ insights and engaging in their suggested practices positions academics to move towards wholeness and enhance the fortitude that is necessary to effect systemic change within our institutions and our society."

Veronica Womack, Associate Director, Inclusive Learning Communities, Searle Center for Advancing Learning and Teaching, Northwestern University, USA.

"This collection is a balm for an educator’s soul. Full of practical and wise essays, it addresses current challenges in higher education through diverse stories and healing contemplative practices. The anthology offers ways to re-connect with ourselves and one another, re-invigorate our passion for educating, heal from the toxicity of systemic higher education, and re-imagine possibility.  As I read, I felt my exhausted spirit re-integrate with hope. I found myself jotting down ideas for how to bring the wise insights of this collection into my life, teaching, and work. I will be sitting with this collection for a while with deep, deep gratitude."

Beth Berila, Director, Gender and Women’s Studies, St. Cloud State University, USA.

Tartalomjegyzék:

1. Introduction: Contemplative Practice is an Act of Resistance  Part 1: Ever Present and Interconnected: Symphonic Journeys, Rooted Practices  2. Teaching Best What You Most Want to Learn: The Way of the Crows  3. Unsettling the Colonial Shadows of Contemplative Practice  4. Cajitas as My Contemplative Practice  5. Contemplative Practices through a Black Feminist Lens: Badassery, For Real Love and Fellowship  6. Deepening Belonging: A Contemplative Practice of Relational Flourishing  7. Reflections Beyond Fragmentation: A Fractal Reconfiguration  Part 2: Conjuring Transformation: We Who—Know—Know  8. Revealing Healing, Wholeness, and Power: Sitting Zazen  9. From Body Oppression to Body Sovereignty Through Contact Improvisation  10. From Practice to Purpose: Contemplative Dance as a Method for Moving through Resistance  11. Creative Envisioning: A Contemplative Practice that Promotes Healing, Personal Growth, and Professional Development  12. On being (a) contemplative in higher education: ‘moving’ through familiar and unfamiliar spaces  13. Conjuring Transformation: The Magic is in the Process  Part 3: Pause  14. Cool Like Jazz: A Loving Dialogue on the Multiplicity of Black Manhood  Part 4: Rhizomatic Awakenings, New Plateaus: Rhizomes, Connection, Ruptures, and Lines of Flight David W. Robinson-Morris  15. Showing up Audacious and Bad Ass from the Edges & On the Margins Like My Ancestors Phyllis M. Jeffers-Coly  16. Our Skins are Membranes, Not Walls: A Multiracial Feminist Conversation  17. Dancing Barefoot in the University: From Burnout to Radical Presence  18. Alongside Aaron  19. My Rhizomatic Awakening  Part 5: Liberatory Relationality: Cultivating Collective Compassion  20. Cultivating Belonging: Compassionate Practice and Pedagogy  21. Beloved Community as Practice: Grounding Exercises, Care Teams, and Redefining Success  22. Why am I talking? Disrupting Dominant Narratives in Higher Education  23. Contemplative Emergence: How My Contemplative Practices Have Supported Transformative Change in a Higher Education Space  24. Enacting an Indigenous Decolonial Contemplative Mentorship in Higher Education: Meditations on the Legacy of Plenty Fox  25. Contemplative Resistance Amidst the Fires of Global Suffering  26. Afterword: A Ritual for Resisting