Concurrent Session 1 – Contemplation as Organizational Transformation in a Research I University: The University of Virginia as a Case Study

The founding of the Contemplative Sciences Center at the University of Virginia provided an opportunity for institutional transformation across all schools in teaching and learning, research, engagement, and cross-disciplinary collaboration. The approach has been to assess the organizational culture, intellectual norms, pedagogical practices, and gaps in student outcomes to consider how contemplative ideas, values, and practices can potentially contribute to transformative growth, and then operationalize into a series of strategic initiatives. Six University of Virginia faculty involved in this process from different schools — College of Arts and Sciences, Nursing, Education, and Commerce — will offer insights into this process by which contemplation can function as a gateway to organizational transformation within schools and disciplines, and also between them in new partnerships. In addition to school-specific initiatives, this includes articulating new models of classroom learning that go beyond content acquisition and critical thought, fashioning new partnerships between humanists and scientists, and building innovative models of collaboration between arts and sciences and the professional schools.