1st Edition
Contemplative Practices and Acts of Resistance in Higher Education Narratives Toward Wholeness
Dedication
An Invocation of Seven Directions Toward Wholeness
April E. Lindala, Denise Cadeau, and Cueponcaxochitl D. Moreno Sandoval
Preface
Acknowledgements
Meet the Contributors
Chapter 1: Introduction: Contemplative Practice is an Act of Resistance
Michelle C. Chatman, LeeRay Costa, and David W. Robinson-Morris
Part 1: Ever Present and Interconnected: Symphonic Journeys, Rooted Practices
Michelle C. Chatman
Chapter 2: Teaching Best What You Most Want to Learn: The Way of the Crows
Brandon LA Hutchinson
Chapter 3: Unsettling the Colonial Shadows of Contemplative Practice
JuPong Lin
Chapter 4: Cajitas as My Contemplative Practice
Alberto López Pulido
Chapter 5: Contemplative Practices through a Black Feminist Lens: Badassery, For Real Love and Fellowship
Emerald Templeton
Chapter 6: Deepening Belonging: A Contemplative Practice of Relational Flourishing
Aizaiah G. Yong & Yohana Agra Junker
Chapter 7: Reflections Beyond Fragmentation: A Fractal Reconfiguration
Vaishali Mamgain
Part 2: Conjuring Transformation: We Who—Know—Know
David W. Robinson-Morris
Chapter 8: Revealing Healing, Wholeness, and Power: Sitting Zazen
Monika L. Son
Chapter 9: From Body Oppression to Body Sovereignty Through Contact Improvisation
Robin Raven Prichard
Chapter 10: From Practice to Purpose: Contemplative Dance as a Method for Moving through Resistance
Candice Salyers
Chapter 11: Creative Envisioning: A Contemplative Practice that Promotes Healing, Personal Growth, and Professional Development
Virginia Diaz-Mendoza
Chapter 12: On being (a) contemplative in higher education: ‘moving’ through familiar and unfamiliar spaces
Emmanuelle Khoury
Chapter 13: Conjuring Transformation: The Magic is in the Process
Maria Hamilton Abegunde
Part 3: Pause
Chapter 14: Cool Like Jazz: A Loving Dialogue on the Multiplicity of Black Manhood
Bradford C. Grant with Michelle C. Chatman
Part 4: Rhizomatic Awakenings, New Plateaus: Rhizomes, Connection, Ruptures, and Lines of Flight David W. Robinson-Morris
Chapter 15: Showing up Audacious and Bad Ass from the Edges & On the Margins Like My Ancestors
Phyllis M. Jeffers-Coly
Chapter 16: Our Skins are Membranes, Not Walls: A Multiracial Feminist Conversation
Zahra Ahmed, Anita Chari, & Becky Thompson
Chapter 17: Dancing Barefoot in the University: From Burnout to Radical Presence
Lela Mosemghvdlishvili
Chapter 18: Alongside Aaron
Wendy Petersen-Boring
Chapter 19: My Rhizomatic Awakening
Steven Thurston Oliver
Part 5: Liberatory Relationality: Cultivating Collective Compassion
LeeRay Costa
Chapter 20: Cultivating Belonging: Compassionate Practice and Pedagogy
Renuka Gusain
Chapter 21: Beloved Community as Practice: Grounding Exercises, Care Teams, and Redefining Success
Meika Loe
Chapter 22: Why am I talking? Disrupting Dominant Narratives in Higher Education
Deb Spragg
Chapter 23: Contemplative Emergence: How My Contemplative Practices Have Supported Transformative Change in a Higher Education Space
Ericka Echavarria
Chapter 24: Enacting an Indigenous Decolonial Contemplative Mentorship in Higher Education: Meditations on the Legacy of Plenty Fox
Michael Yellow Bird & Holly Hatton
Chapter 25: Contemplative Resistance Amidst the Fires of Global Suffering
Jen Cannon
Chapter 26: Afterword: A Ritual for Resisting
Michelle C. Chatman, LeeRay Costa, and David W. Robinson-Morris
Biography
Michelle C. Chatman is Associate Professor of Crime, Justice, and Security Studies, Director of the Violence Prevention and Community Wellness Program, and founding director of the Mindfulness and Contemplative Action (MICA) Lab at The University of the District of Columbia, USA.
LeeRay Costa is Professor of Gender and Women’s Studies/Anthropology, Director of Gender and Women’s Studies, and Director of Faculty Development at Hollins University, USA.
David W. Robinson-Morris is former Executive Director of the Center for Contemplative Mind in Society (CMind), the founder of The REImaginelution, and inaugural Executive Director of the Institute for Black Intellectual and Cultural Life at Dartmouth College, USA.
"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.
