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an initiative of the Center for Contemplative Mind in Society
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UPCOMING ACMHE EVENTS
| Contemplative Retreat for Educators
October 18-21, 2012
Garrison Institute, Garrison, NY With Mirabai Bush, Paul Wapner,
& Anna Neiman Passalacqua
ACMHE members receive $50 off registration;
Please register by this Friday, Sept. 14th
At the core of contemplative methods is a practice of one's own. Much of this retreat will be spent in focused, guided inquiry and in silence, including some silent meals. Through guided meditation, mindful walking, yoga, and journaling, participants will examine their work deeply, enabling them to reenter their professional lives from a place of greater skillfulness and insight.
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| Mindfulness: Foundation for Teaching and Learning
The 6th Mindfulness in Education Network Conference at Lesley University, Cambridge, MA
Save the date: March 15-17, 2013 More information and registration TBA.
The ACMHE is a co-sponsor of this event. |
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EVENTS and APPEARANCES by
ACMHE MEMBERS
Knowing Persons in their Deepest Goodness--Experiencing the Unity of Love and Wisdom
September 28 - 30, 2012
Barre Center for Buddhist Studies, Barre, MA
Event website
 Taught by ACMHE member John Makransky (Buddhism and Comparative Theology, Boston College), practices from Tibetan tradition are adapted for fresh access to Westerners, with special focus on a Dzogchen approach to bodhichitta, the essence of loving compassion and wisdom. To receive love deeply and extend it impartially can help the mind release into its most natural state--the wisdom of openness, simplicity and presence beyond self-clinging. By resting in its natural state, the mind can further unleash its innate capacity of love. When this unity of love and wisdom is embodied in relationships, service and social action, it becomes a powerful force to heal our world. The ancient bodhisattva path of awakening is rediscovered by paying new attention to the particulars of our lives. Learn more and register at the BCBS website.
Mindful Education: Building Inner Resilience
Friday, October 19, 2012
8:30am to 4:00pm
CCSU Alumni Hall in Student Center
Conference website
Central Connecticut State University, in collaboration with Capital Community College, will host a conference entitled "Mindful Education: Building Inner Resilience." The conference will include a streaming of the Dalai Lama's 9:30 am talk. The conference will include workshops and keynote address by ACMHE member and Director of the Center for Contemplative Mind in Society Daniel Barbezat, Ph.D., Professor of Economics at Amherst College. Registration and program information is available at http://www.ccsu.edu/MindfulEducation.
Contemplative Pedagogy and Dealing with Technology
At the Professional and Organizational Development Network's Annual Conference
October 24-28, 2012
Seattle, WashingtonConference website
ACMHE members Daniel Barbezat (Economics, Amherst College) and David Levy (Information School, University of Washington) will present an interactive session, "Contemplative Pedagogy and Dealing with Technology," at Pencils & Pixels: 21st Century Practices in Higher Education, the Professional and Organizational Development Network's Annual Conference in Seattle, Washington on October 24-28, 2012. Participants in this session will gain an understanding of the core principles of contemplative pedagogy as a research-based practice of innovative, effective teaching, with concrete benefits for today's students. In addition, they will better understand their students' relationship with the new technologies and have better strategies to respond to them. The POD conference will be an informed exploration of the unprecedented array of technologies, both high-tech and low-tech, in use at institutions of higher learning. The conference will explore how digital technologies affect the way students learn and what kinds of support faculty and students need in selecting appropriate technologies for the work at hand.
Moving Beyond the Diary: Innovation in Design and Delivery of Reflection ACEN conference presentation October 29 - November 2, 2012 Geelong, Victoria, Australia Conference website
 ACMHE member Marina Harvey (Learning and Teaching Centre, Macquarie University), with a team from Macquarie University, will present a paper and a workshop at the Australian Collaborative Education Network 2012 conference (29 Oct - 2 Nov). The paper is titled "Moving beyond the diary: innovation in design and delivery of reflection." The associated workshop offers participants the opportunity to experience some of the innovative approaches to the practice and documentation of reflection. Processes using art, story and mindfulness will be briefly explored for their potential to engage the diversity of students in reflection for whole person learning (Yorks and Kasl, 2002), premised on the tenet that experiential knowledge is the foundation for all ways of knowing (Heron, 1992).
The CUNY Mindfulness Lecture Series Second Thursdays, Fall 2012 7:00 - 8:15 PM
The Graduate Center, CUNY
365 Fifth Avenue, Science Center 4102
New York, NY 10016 (212) 817-7000 All events are free and open to the public.
The second annual CUNY Mindfulness Lecture Series, with participation by ACMHE members Rikki Asher and David Forbes, will bring together scientists, scholars and students to present and discuss cross-disciplinary research and theory relative to the science and practice of mindfulness. Mindfulness will be explored through physics, neuroscience, philosophy and psychology. This series will offer CUNY students and the community opportunities to participate in the advancement of learning in this field. September 13, 2012: Changes in Brain Structure and Function with Mindful Practice with Zoran Josipovic, Ph.D., New York University, Department of Psychology, Contemplative Science Lab, Metro-Area Research Group on Awareness & Meditation and founder of the Non-Duality Institute. October 11, 2012: Meditation: Tools for Awakening Courage, Faith and Compassion with Sharon Salzberg, cofounder of the Insight Meditation Society (IMS) in Barre, Massachusetts. November 8, 2012: Mindful Museum Education with Rikki Asher, Ed. D, CUNY Queens College Art Education, and Marcos A. Stafne, Head of Education and Visitor Experience for the Rubin Museum of Art.
December 13, 2012: Origins of Mindful Practice with Lama Migmar Tseten, a Buddhist Chaplain at Harvard University, who received both a traditional and a contemporary education in India. Meditation, Interfaith Learning, and Social Service: Deep Learning Across Religious Boundaries
February 9, 2013
Gasson Hall, Boston College
Boston, MAEvent website
A day-long meditation retreat and interfaith dialogue, taught by ACMHE member John Makransky (Buddhism and Comparative Theology, Boston College) and Paul Knitter (Union Theological Seminary). This retreat is for those new to contemplative practice or experienced in it, who serve others in family or community or work for social justice. Participants will learn powerful meditations of compassion and awareness adapted from Tibetan Buddhism for people of all faiths and backgrounds. Such meditations from Buddhism can freshly illumine elements of our own spiritual formation (Christian, Jewish or other), generating new insights into the nature of relationship, service and social action. The meditations evoke an unconditional attitude from within that nourishes all while challenging us to see greater potential in all. We will explore the relevance of contemplative practice for becoming more fully present to self and others, healing inner wounds, and challenging injustice. We will note implications for inter-faith learning and connections to faith-based social activists, such as Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Thomas Merton and the Dalai Lama. Guided meditations will be interspersed with dialogue between Professors Knitter and Makransky on fresh possibilities of Buddhist-Christian learning in connection with contemplation, service and action. Time will be provided for questions and discussion. For information, contact Gloria Rufo: gloria.rufo@bc.edu.
Teaching and Learning with Mindfulness
24th Annual Teaching Academic Survival Skills Conference
March 17 - 20, 2013
Fort Lauderdale, FL
ACMHE member Kathy Bishop (English, Broward College) has been invited to give her presentation "Teaching and Learning with Mindfulness" at the 24th Annual Teaching Academic Survival Skills (TASS) Conference in Fort Lauderdale, FL, March 17-20, 2013. Bishop originally presented this session at the 2012 TASS conference and she reports, "There was so much talk about the session by those who attened it last year and loved it that they have decided to bring me back again."
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ACMHE Members: Contribute to this Newsletter
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Have an announcement, recent publication or event you'd like to include in our next issue? Log in to acmhe.org and submit your pieces by November 15th; we're planning to send out our next ACMHE newsletter in December.
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Watch Recent Webinars | |
"The Mindful Teacher"
Steven Emmanuel
Professor of Philosopy, Virginia Wesleyan College
"Legal Education as Contemplative, Multicultural Inquiry"
Rhonda Magee
Professor of Law,
University of San Francisco
Watch more at www.acmhe.org
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PRESS ROOM
members' recent and upcoming publications
  Mirabai Bush (Associate Director, The Center for Contemplative Mind in Society) released Working with Mindfulness, an audio CD/digital download of contemplative exercises to help reduce stress, increase productivity, encourage creative problem solving, and improve relationships in work environments, including the academy. Learn more about this project and listen to a sample at More Than Sound.
Oren Ergas (Education, Haifa University) was recently published in Educational Philosophy and Theory. The paper (read it here) proposes postural yoga as an embodied philosophy towards life. It begins by following James's claim as to the nature of the Greek and modern tradition of philosophy as remote from living. It then proposes yoga as an alternative which binds philosophy and life through the body. The paper ends with a number of examples which illustrate this pedagogy.
David Forbes (Education, Brooklyn College/CUNY) writes, "Along with others who are encouraging us to see the broader context of mindfulness, I wrote an article looking at it from an integral perspective: http://beamsandstruts.com/articles/item/982-occupy-mindfulness." A response will appear in the next newsletter.
  From David Haskell (Biology, University of the South):
"Wonder increases as speed decreases." This is what I concluded from my year-long watch of one square meter of old-growth forest in the mountains of Tennessee. I undertook this watch for two reasons. First, as a scientist and biology teacher I spend a lot of time in nature, but this time is seldom spent in a quiet, listening mode. Instead, in class we discuss, we gather data, we follow syllabi. Likewise, during research projects, I focus on particular questions, coming to nature with a plan. I'm less open than I could be. So, I went to the woods to observe without a directed agenda, to open my senses to the particularities of place, and to hear what the forest might have to say. My second reason for undertaking the watch was a literary one. I used the one square meter as a tiny lens, a pin-hole, through which to observe and tell the stories of the forest. The small area was a device to structure the narrative of a book about the forest's ecology and evolution. We live in an unendingly fascinating world, yet the stories of "nature" are too often untold. I wanted to hold up and honor the "little creatures" of the forest, the proletariat that rule the ecological world (and what other world is there?). A contemplative approach allowed me to slow down, to see, and, hopefully, to understand a little more clearly. The book that came from this work, The Forest Unseen (Viking, 2012), follows a year in the life of a "forest mandala," a circle of forest the same size as a Tibetan sand mandala. I describe not only the biological stories of the forest, but ask what a contemplative approach might bring to an understanding of our relationship with the rest of the community of life. Could, for example, the conclusions of the Darwinian revolution be felt as a call to deeper compassion? If we accept the evolutionary continuity of life, we can no longer close the door to empathy with other animals. Our flesh is their flesh. Our nerves are built on the same plan as insect nerves. Descent from a common ancestor implies that caterpillar pain and human pain are similar. My aim is integrate the scientific approach with contemplation, honoring both traditions, and not to let one dominate and suppress the other. More information--including reviews, photographs, and classroom questions--is available at the book's website, http://theforestunseen.com/.
Sally Severino, Professor Emeritus of Psychiatry, and Nancy Morrison, retired Associate Professor of Psychiatry, University of New Mexico, announce a new publication:
Severino, Sally K. and Nancy K. Morrison: "Three Voices/One Message: The Importance of Mimesis for Human Morality" Contagion: Journal of Violence, Mimesis, and Culture 19 (2012) 139-166.
A .pdf is available here; learn more information on Severino's and Morrison's collaboration at www.neurospirit.net.
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ANNOUNCEMENTS FROM MEMBERS
Innovative Ways of Practicing and Documenting Reflection for Learning
Marina Harvey (Learning and Teaching Centre, Macquarie University) reports that Macquarie University has funded this small, multi-disciplinary learning and teaching research project (August 2011- 2013). Underpinned by a Participatory Action Research methodology, the action learning team is opening the project with a contemplative retreat to plan milestone actions. The key aim is to "disrupt the authority of the text" (deFreitas, 2007) of the traditional language-based cognitive approach of journaling by nurturing creative and innovative ways of reflecting for learning.
New Course on Mindfulness and Contemplative Practices at Columbia's Teachers College
ACMHE member Home H.C. Nguyen (Adult Learning and Leadership, Columbia University) and Sarah Sherman are leading a new course for Fall 2012: Mindfulness and Contemplative Practices For Educators, Aspiring Leaders and Therapists. The new course is offered through the Clinical Psychology Program at Teachers College, Columbia University. This course is open to students at all of Columbia's Graduate schools, as well as students enrolled in other schools and others not currently enrolled in a degree program. Learn more.
NHTI Wins NEH Grant to Expand Mindful Communication Program
NHTI, Concord's Community College, is pleased to announce that it has been selected to participate in "Advancing the Humanities at Community Colleges: A National Endowment for the Humanities 'Bridging Cultures' Project." NHTI was one of only 18 community colleges chosen out of 70 applicants to be part of this nationwide effort "to greatly enhance [students'] understanding of diverse countries, peoples, and cultural and intellectual traditions."
 The college will receive a grant, administered through the Community College Humanities Association, to expand several inter-related programs which the school has developed in recent years. One such program centers on the innovative communications course, Communicating Mindfully, developed by ACMHE member Dan Huston, uses meditation techniques to help students learn to "be present in the moment." Such enhanced awareness or mindfulness can help a student to be more fully integrated in a conversation, to genuinely listen to the other person's point of view as well as expressing their own ... in short, to genuinely communicate.
Mindful Communication has been applied for the past decade or so in NHTI's highly successful Conversation Partners program, which pairs native speakers of English from New Hampshire with ESOL (English for Speakers of Other Languages) students new to New Hampshire and American culture. This program is currently embedded in three of NHTI's academic programs:
- Human Services, where students learning to be mental health counselors, addiction counselors, home health aides, and the like have an obvious interest in learning to better communicate with clients who may not be native English speakers;
- Criminal Justice, where students preparing for law enforcement careers also have a need to develop greater understanding of immigrant and recently resettled populations, some of whom may perceive people in uniform as a threat;
- Orthopaedic Technology, the first of NHTI's Allied Health programs to embrace the program. People from different cultures may communicate their experience of pain and illness very differently, and it is important for health care practitioners to learn to hear what patients with diverse backgrounds may be telling them.
The NEH grant will be used to help NHTI to develop curricula to expand Mindful Communication and the Conversation Partners program to other areas of study, including literature, information technology, and civics. In addition to funding travel to an NEH conference, the grant will provide "assistance from outstanding humanities scholars and mentors" to aid the college in developing its new programs. The mentor for NHTI is Kathy Fedorko, Professor of English Emerita at Middlesex County College, NJ.
Buddhist Text Available through Carol Foster
ACMHE member Carol Foster (Information Technology/UMass Amherst) is distributing copies of "Vimuttidhamma: From Chakra to Dhammachakra" by Phra Ajahn Piyadhassi Bhikkhu, a vipassana meditation teacher from Chiang Mai, Thailand, free of charge to study centers, colleges and universities. The book is available in .pdf form from Phra Ajahn's monastery's website at www.vimuttidhamma.org. If you would like to contact Carol to obtain a printed copy, you may email her at cfoster@oit.umass.edu.
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GRANTS
The Mind & Life Institute is a non-profit organization that seeks to understand the human mind and the benefits of contemplative practices through an integrated mode of knowing that combines first person knowledge from the world's contemplative traditions with methods and findings from contemporary scientific inquiry. Mind & Life is conducting three grant programs for 2012-2013:
Varela Awards
Two-year grants are offered to fund research on contemplative techniques in academic fields such as neuroscience, cognitive science, psychology, philosophy and contemplative studies, with the ultimate goal that findings will provide greater insight into the mechanisms of contemplative practice and its application for reducing human suffering. To be eligible for a Varela Award, the applicant must have attended the Mind and Life Summer Research Institute within the last two years. Learn more.
APPLICATION DEADLINE: September 28, 2012
1440 Awards
Two-year grants are offered to promote research that evaluates whether and how contemplative practice can promote inner well-being and healthy relationships, as well as the development of new methods to assess these outcomes in everyday life. Awards are open to any academic researchers, but applications from graduate students and postdoctoral fellows are strongly encouraged. Learn more.
APPLICATION DEADLINE: November 15, 2012
Contemplative Studies Fellowships
One-year grants are offered to humanities and social science scholars to support research that brings fresh perspectives from the humanities into contemplative neuroscience and contemplative clinical science. Applicants must have a faculty position, and are required to show how their research strategy and subject matter engage with neuroscientific or clinical studies of contemplative experience. Learn more. APPLICATION DEADLINE: January 15, 2013
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EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITY
Submitted by Georgia Frank (Religion, Colgate University), a Contemplative Practice Fellowship recipient:
Colgate University seeks candidates for the position of Director of the Study of the Great Religions of the World and Director of Chapel House. The successful candidate will hold a position in an academic department (e.g. Religion, Philosophy, Asian Studies, East Asian Languages and Literatures) with a half-time teaching load. Candidates should have scholarly expertise in The Study, Pedagogy, and Practices of Contemplative Traditions, and Inter-religious Dialogue. Ph.D., Th.D., or the equivalent and teaching expertise in religious studies is required but rank and academic specialization are open. Applications from candidates with other appropriate backgrounds will also be considered. The successful candidate will be expected to provide leadership, vision, planning, and management for the Fund for the Study of the Great Religions of the World and for Chapel House. Previous programmatic, administrative, budgetary, and supervisory experience is preferred.
Members: want to post a job listing? You can sign into acmhe.org and post it to the Employment Opportunity message board in our Community Forum.
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Supported by the Hemera Foundation, 1440 Foundation, Kalliopeia Foundation,
the Clements Foundation and other foundations and private donations.
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