Contemplative teachings highlight the benefit of mindfulness practice to the practitioner and to those with whom they interact, yet very few studies on meditation to date have explored whether meditation training improves social interactions and relationships. Examining effects on emotion regulation in social contexts may be key to understanding meditation’s social consequences, for at least …
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Relational processes in learning mindfulness: An action-theoretical perspective
The interpersonal processes of learning mindfulness were explored by analyzing the transcripts of the teacher-student interactions in the Dialogue and Inquiry periods of the MBSR course, informed by video-assisted process recall interviews of teacher and students. The purpose of the study was to describe and understand the process of learning and teaching mindfulness as a …
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Nonattachment, group identity, and memory of historical injustices
The aim of this project is to extend my previous work on nonattachment by assessing its role in group identity and memory of historical injustices. I will assess individual differences in nonattachment in the general American population and test the effect of nonattachment on (1) previously known effects of group identity on biases in memory …
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Mindfulness training for parents and children
This project will examine how mindfulness training affects dispositional mindfulness, parental monitoring, a child’s effortful control of attention, and the quality of the parent-child relationship. In addition to how changes in these variables are related to changes in problem behavior. Forty families (with children ages 10-12) will be recruited from a Northwestern city, and half …
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Socially-Engaged Mindfulness Interventions (SEMI) and the Promise of Making Refuge
This Think Tank brings together engaged Buddhist and secular mindfulness practitioners, teachers, scholars, and activists from areas like minority rights and struggles, environmentalism and sustainability, critical pedagogy and liberal arts education. We draw on Buddhist and feminist and posthumanist thinking for inspiration to formulate our working questions: What is refuge? Where or when do we …
Investigating the correlates and consequences of directed loving-kindness meditation
The need for social connection is a fundamental human motive, and it is increasingly clear that feeling socially connected confers mental and physical health benefits. However, in many cultures, societal changes are leading to growing social distrust and alienation. Can feelings of social connection and positivity toward others be increased? Is it possible to self-generate …
Session V – Reparative Humanism: Exploring the Meaning of Ubuntu
A spirit of Ubuntu gestures towards both an embrace and a challenge that holds Others to greater moral accountability, and calls on them to be ethical subjects. Ubuntu is fundamental in both ethics and politics, and is relevant to the embodied politics of forgiveness after mass trauma and violence. I will elaborate on this notion …
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Trust and Christian contemplative practice: A social neuroscientific study of spiritual capital in a contemplative tradition
Growing recognition of the benefits of contemplative practice for the reduction of harmful stress and the improvement of prosocial behavior is prompting research into how these effects arise. We define contemplative practice as intentionally attempting to suspend all discursive and evaluative thought. In practice, most forms of contemplative practice emphasize compassion for self and others, …
Session IV – The Role of Botho/Ubuntu in Modern Responses to Children’s and Women’s Rights Issues in Africa
How can the role and nature of Botho/Ubuntu in African societies be reconciled with the many incidences of violations of women and children’s rights we witness in modern society? How have African societies travelled from historical perspectives that highlighted definitions of integrated individual and collective humanity of all peoples to current violations that include far …
Session IV – The Biology of Care and Conflict in Groups
Relations between groups can be peaceful and mutually beneficial. Human groups co-exist, trade goods and care for one another. But relations between groups can also be competitive, and sometimes violent. Indeed, the human ability to care for “us” (our in-group) often seems to coincide with an ability to compete against “them” (out-groups). In our work …
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