Contemplative Studies Unit
This year, the Contemplative Studies Unit especially invites proposals addressing the role of different epistemologies relative to Contemplative Studies, comparative or otherwise. Particularly we are looking for papers on:
- Reflecting on the Future of the Field – A roundtable on the future of contemplative studies; methodologies, as they pertain to the future; Alliances with other fields such as Christian spirituality; cognitive science of religion; music and religion; the body and religion.
- Aesthetics of Sound in Contemplation
- Animacies; Sentience and Non-Sentience in Contemplation and More-Than-Human Awareness: Ecological Contemplation and the Boundaries of Sentience(Devin Zuckerman dcz3fj@virginia.edu)
- Digital Contemplation, Leveraging Technology for Contemplative Practice (Michael Sheehy: sheehy@virginia.edu,John Dunne contact persons)
- Art as Contemplative Technology: Making, Sensing, and Creating Worlds: How artistic creation operates as contemplative practice
- Lineages of the Unruly: Contemplative Transmission Across Official and Underground Worlds: contemplative practice through countercultural, diasporic, queer, and marginalized channels.
- a possible co-sponsored panel with Cognitive Science of Religion Unit focusing on the intersections of cognitive science and contemplative research (contact: Loriliai.biernacki@colorado.edu ).
- a co-sponsored panel specifically addressing Indigenous traditions
- Future Rituals: Immersive Arts, XR Technologies, and the Evolution of Contemplative Experience
Interrogating how virtual architectures and emerging sensory technologies are reshaping presence, participation, and pedagogical horizons in contemplative studies.
Feel free to suggest other panels or papers by contacting the co-chairs of the unit.
Contact Loriliai Biernacki, loriliai.biernacki@colorado.edu or Michael Sheehy, ms4qm@virginia.edu
This program unit aims to strengthen and develop contemplative studies as an academic field of inquiry, especially in the context of religious studies and the AAR. Our Unit provides a forum for: • The investigation of contemplative practice and experience, considered inclusively and comprehensively • Critical discussions on the field itself, including theoretical and interpretive issues • The application of contemplative practice to academic life and university culture, including the possible contribution of “contemplative pedagogy” to teaching and learning The Unit thus aims to gather together currently diffused groups as well as dislocated, marginalized, and underrepresented individuals in the academy. To this end, we encourage research that is topical, tradition-specific, comparative, and cross-cultural. We also invite scholars to investigate contemplative practice and experience in ways that traverse and transcend the boundaries of traditions, disciplines, and research methodologies.
| Chair | Dates | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Loriliai Biernacki | loriliai.biernacki… | - | View |
| Michael Sheehy, University of Virginia | ms4qm@virginia.edu | - | View |