Contemplative Practices and Acts of Resistance in Higher Education

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 Courageous Action (MICA) Lab at the University of the District of Columbia, Washington, DC.LeeRay Costa is Executive Director of Leadership Studies and the Batten Leadership Institute, and Professor of Gender and Women’s Studies/Anthropology at Hollins University, Roanoke, VA.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, Hanover, NH.

• 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

"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.