Mindfulness and Social Justice
Charles T. Lee, Justice and Social Inquiry, School of Social Transformation
For this research cluster, we seek to bring together colleagues from across the university who share an interest in mindfulness and social justice to engage in collective dialogue on how to bridge these two realms in our intellectual thinking, critical engagement with the world, and personal, everyday practices. Our proposed research cluster has two foci:
1) To investigate how insights of diverse mindfulness traditions, approaches, and paths (e.g., meditation, Buddhism, yoga, tai chi, reiki, chi kung, and many others) might guide, enrich, and transform our scholarly and/or advocacy work on social justice.
2) To critically examine inclusion, representation, and access within contemporary mindfulness practices based on racial, cultural, gender, and sexual differences, as well as the effect of commodification on such practices, in order to engender insights and actions for informing, reforming, and transforming the existing horizons of mindfulness.
With these two foci, we wish to intertwine mindfulness and social justice in our thinking and actions, and to allow this dynamic to guide and inform our ongoing commitments to both in our intellectual work and social advocacy.