Towards an Embodied Social Justice: Integrating Mindfulness Into Anti-Oppression Pedagogy

This webinar explores how contemplative practices can deepen feminist and critical race pedagogies in Women’s Studies, Ethnic Studies, and other courses about diversity, power, and oppression. Mindfulness can help students both understand their reactions in class discussions and help them become more intentional about them. But they may also evoke for students complex responses to their own experiences of oppression. As teachers, we have a responsibility to help students make sense of those responses. How does embodiment play a role in unlearning oppression? How might our identity locations and our lived experiences shape our responses to mindfulness practices? What kinds of consequences from oppression might arise for students when we integrate contemplative practices into the classroom? How can professors be prepared for these diverse responses and effectively support students? This webinar establishes a foundation for WHY we need mindfulness in these classrooms and then discusses how teachers can prepare students for the myriad of reactions that might arise when they are asked to be present with what is