Subversive Studies

In this episode with Dr. May Elawar, we discuss postcolonial feminism, epistemic vigilance, how can knowledge liberate rather than oppress, knowledge at the borderlands, going a step beyond identity politics, spiritual activism, being and becoming, interdependence, Gloria Anzaldua and conocimiento, Starhawk's work and vision for humanity, decolonizing the divine, and why liberatory work needs magic and magic needs to be liberatory.

May Elawar, PhD, teaches in the Transformative Inquiry program at CIIS and previously taught in the Women's Spirituality program. May received her PhD in Philosophy and Religion with a concentration in Women's Spirituality from CIIS. She holds an MA in International Relations from the American University in Washington, DC, and a BA in Political Science. She is interested in bridging spirituality/religion with social justice activism. May is Lebanese, and came to the US as an international student. She is particularly interested in exploring alternative and non-western philosophical frameworks to address theories of knowledge, identity, gender, colonialism/postcolonialism, and globalization. May's research and activism has focused greatly on social justice in the Arab and Muslim world, particularly for women. Through her work in the Women's Spirituality Program, May is active with a number of groups in the Bay Area who are involved in exploring transformative practices for healing gender-based violence.

NOTES:

Chandra Talpade Mohanty

Lila Fernandes, Decolonizing the Divine

Gloria Anzaldua

Kwok Pui-lan

In this episode with Dr. May Elawar, we discuss postcolonial feminism, epistemic vigilance, how can knowledge liberate rather than oppress, knowledge at the borderlands, going a step beyond identity politics, spiritual activism, being and becoming, interdependence, Gloria Anzaldua and conocimiento, Starhawk's work and vision for humanity, decolonizing the divine, and why liberatory work needs magic and magic needs to be liberatory.

May Elawar, PhD, teaches in the Transformative Inquiry program at CIIS and previously taught in the Women's Spirituality program. May received her PhD in Philosophy and Religion with a concentration in Women's Spirituality from CIIS. She holds an MA in International Relations from the American University in Washington, DC, and a BA in Political Science. She is interested in bridging spirituality/religion with social justice activism. May is Lebanese, and came to the US as an international student. She is particularly interested in exploring alternative and non-western philosophical frameworks to address theories of knowledge, identity, gender, colonialism/postcolonialism, and globalization. May's research and activism has focused greatly on social justice in the Arab and Muslim world, particularly for women. Through her work in the Women's Spirituality Program, May is active with a number of groups in the Bay Area who are involved in exploring transformative practices for healing gender-based violence.

NOTES:

Chandra Talpade Mohanty

Lila Fernandes, Decolonizing the Divine

Gloria Anzaldua

Kwok Pui-lan

Gabrielle Donnelly, Ph.D. is a scholar and practitioner of creativity, social change, and innovation. In this episode, we discuss the dynamic between the scholar and practitioner sides of oneself; working with perceived polarities in groups, individuals, and society at large; finding your voice as a scholar; the dissertation process as creative and personal transformation; "kissing people over the edge," and much more.

Co-founder of Brave Space, Gabrielle works with methods for meaningful public engagement, participatory leadership, and systems change such as The Art of Hosting, Deep Democracy, and Participatory Action Research. Her passion for integrating theory and practice leads her to work with organizations like Coady International Institute, FoodARC, ALIA Institute, Government of Nova Scotia, Ecology Action Centre, Nova Scotia Human Rights Commission, and Now Lunenburg County.

Gabrielle is a professor at Acadia University, an associate of the Taos Institute, ​and publishes in the areas of creativity, social change, participatory leadership, and transdisciplinarity. She is the Managing Editor of World Futures: The Journal of New Paradigm Research. Born in London, England and raised in Calgary, Alberta, Gabrielle lives in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

Dr. Donnelly's website: www.gabrielledonnelly.ca

The Brave Space website is www.bravespace.ca

The Art of Hosting website www.artofhosting.org/

Deep Democracy (Lewis Method) https://deep-democracy.net/

Rune Soup episode with Dr. Jeffrey Kripal: https://runesoup.com/2018/03/talking-secret-body-jeffrey-kripal/

Strieber, W., & Kripal, J. (2016). The Super Natural: A New Vision of the Unexplained. Tarcher Perigee.

Zia Sardar: http://ziauddinsardar.com/2011/03/welcome-to-postnormal-times/

Montuori, A. (2005). How to make enemies and influence people: anatomy of the anti-pluralist, totalitarian mindset. Futures, 37(1), 18-38.

Link to Montuori article on academia: https://www.academia.edu/168673/How_to_Make_Enemies_and_Influence_People_The_Totalitarian_Mindset

Jordan Peterson:

https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/jordan-peterson-clinical-psychologist-canada-popularity-convincing-why-left-wing-alt-right-cathy-a8208301.html

https://medium.com/s/story/a-field-guide-to-jordan-petersons-political-arguments-312153eac99a

Gabrielle Donnelly, Ph.D. is a scholar and practitioner of creativity, social change, and innovation. In this episode, we discuss the dynamic between the scholar and practitioner sides of oneself; working with perceived polarities in groups, individuals, and society at large; finding your voice as a scholar; the dissertation process as creative and personal transformation; "kissing people over the edge," and much more.

Co-founder of Brave Space, Gabrielle works with methods for meaningful public engagement, participatory leadership, and systems change such as The Art of Hosting, Deep Democracy, and Participatory Action Research. Her passion for integrating theory and practice leads her to work with organizations like Coady International Institute, FoodARC, ALIA Institute, Government of Nova Scotia, Ecology Action Centre, Nova Scotia Human Rights Commission, and Now Lunenburg County.

Gabrielle is a professor at Acadia University, an associate of the Taos Institute, ​and publishes in the areas of creativity, social change, participatory leadership, and transdisciplinarity. She is the Managing Editor of World Futures: The Journal of New Paradigm Research. Born in London, England and raised in Calgary, Alberta, Gabrielle lives in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

Dr. Donnelly's website: www.gabrielledonnelly.ca

The Brave Space website is www.bravespace.ca

The Art of Hosting website www.artofhosting.org/

Deep Democracy (Lewis Method) https://deep-democracy.net/

Rune Soup episode with Dr. Jeffrey Kripal: https://runesoup.com/2018/03/talking-secret-body-jeffrey-kripal/

Strieber, W., & Kripal, J. (2016). The Super Natural: A New Vision of the Unexplained. Tarcher Perigee.

Zia Sardar: http://ziauddinsardar.com/2011/03/welcome-to-postnormal-times/

Montuori, A. (2005). How to make enemies and influence people: anatomy of the anti-pluralist, totalitarian mindset. Futures, 37(1), 18-38.

Link to Montuori article on academia: https://www.academia.edu/168673/How_to_Make_Enemies_and_Influence_People_The_Totalitarian_Mindset

Jordan Peterson:

https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/jordan-peterson-clinical-psychologist-canada-popularity-convincing-why-left-wing-alt-right-cathy-a8208301.html

https://medium.com/s/story/a-field-guide-to-jordan-petersons-political-arguments-312153eac99a

If you're intrigued by a professor who teaches courses called "Divine Madness: Dreams, Visions, Hallucinations," "Religion, Medicine, and Healing," and "Good Deaths: From the Tibetan Book of the Dead to the ICU," then this episode is for you. Sara Lewis, Ph.D., is an Anthropologist of religion and medicine specializing in Tibet and South Asia. We discuss her ethnographic research with Tibetan exiles which investigates how Buddhist concepts of time and memory shape responses to trauma, and how those cultural ideals collide with global human rights narratives. We explore the creativity of designing a syllabus, creative inquiry as pedagogy, what it means to have a flexible or spacious mind, the balance of compassion and the Buddhist notion of "emptiness," the creativity of ethnographic research and qualitative interviews, and much more.

--

Sara Lewis, Ph.D., is an Anthropologist of religion and medicine specializing in Tibet and South Asia. As an anthropologist working at the intersection of culture, religion, and mental health, her work considers how individuals and communities cope with distress and cultivate resilience. Her forthcoming book from Cornell University Press investigates how Buddhist concepts of time and memory shape responses to trauma, and how those cultural ideals collide with global human rights narratives. A new project--a transnational ethnography on death and dying among Tibetan exiles--considers an apparent paradox: how a temporal focus on rebirth may enhance agency and empowerment in the present. Watch out for a Twin Peaks (original series) spoiler at 11:15-11:30.

Dr. Lewis currently teaches at Wellesley College in the area of religion, healing and medicine. Her courses are interdisciplinary and engage approaches and methods in anthropology, religion, Buddhist Studies, and global health. She is particularly interested in mentoring students who wish to explore the dynamic intersections of global health, medicine, and other clinical endeavors. She currently chairs the Critical Anthropology for Global Health (CAGH) Special Interest Group of the Society for Medical Anthropology, which examines how critical medical anthropology theory and practices may inform global health. In addition to her research and services activities, Sara previously worked in community mental health as a social worker in the areas of serious mental illness, mindfulness, and palliative care. Outside of the classroom, she can be found in the mountains or on a meditation retreat.

You can access a selection of Sara's publications here: https://wellesley.academia.edu/SaraLewis

If you're intrigued by a professor who teaches courses called "Divine Madness: Dreams, Visions, Hallucinations," "Religion, Medicine, and Healing," and "Good Deaths: From the Tibetan Book of the Dead to the ICU," then this episode is for you. Sara Lewis, Ph.D., is an Anthropologist of religion and medicine specializing in Tibet and South Asia. We discuss her ethnographic research with Tibetan exiles which investigates how Buddhist concepts of time and memory shape responses to trauma, and how those cultural ideals collide with global human rights narratives. We explore the creativity of designing a syllabus, creative inquiry as pedagogy, what it means to have a flexible or spacious mind, the balance of compassion and the Buddhist notion of "emptiness," the creativity of ethnographic research and qualitative interviews, and much more.

--

Sara Lewis, Ph.D., is an Anthropologist of religion and medicine specializing in Tibet and South Asia. As an anthropologist working at the intersection of culture, religion, and mental health, her work considers how individuals and communities cope with distress and cultivate resilience. Her forthcoming book from Cornell University Press investigates how Buddhist concepts of time and memory shape responses to trauma, and how those cultural ideals collide with global human rights narratives. A new project--a transnational ethnography on death and dying among Tibetan exiles--considers an apparent paradox: how a temporal focus on rebirth may enhance agency and empowerment in the present. Watch out for a Twin Peaks (original series) spoiler at 11:15-11:30.

Dr. Lewis currently teaches at Wellesley College in the area of religion, healing and medicine. Her courses are interdisciplinary and engage approaches and methods in anthropology, religion, Buddhist Studies, and global health. She is particularly interested in mentoring students who wish to explore the dynamic intersections of global health, medicine, and other clinical endeavors. She currently chairs the Critical Anthropology for Global Health (CAGH) Special Interest Group of the Society for Medical Anthropology, which examines how critical medical anthropology theory and practices may inform global health. In addition to her research and services activities, Sara previously worked in community mental health as a social worker in the areas of serious mental illness, mindfulness, and palliative care. Outside of the classroom, she can be found in the mountains or on a meditation retreat.

You can access a selection of Sara's publications here: https://wellesley.academia.edu/SaraLewis

A powerful conversation about neurodiversity, neurodivergent scholarship, disability justice, immanent critique, the experiential and political aspects of disability and neurodiversity, and of course, magic.

Sara Maria Acevedo is a neurodivergent mestiza, activist scholar, educator and disability justice advocate born and raised in Colombia, South America. She has served as a Diversity and Disability Advocacy Fellow at California Institute of Integral Studies and is currently a Fellow in the Center for Writing and Scholarship. She’s also the co-founder of the National Coalition for Latinxs with Disablities and serves on the board of directors. Her current research explores activism as history making and qualitative collaborative research methods to challenge oppressive systems impinging on the right of disabled communities to produce cultural and political spaces of inherent value by and for themselves. Sara is currently exploring and documenting the politics of self-direction and self-governance across neurodivergent grassroots communities serving autistic and otherwise neurodivergent transitioning youth in the Bay Area. She utilizes activist ethnographic methods as a strategy to amplify the voices and lived experiences of disabled communities living oppressively at the intersections of race, class, gender expression, sexual orientation, religious practice, and political affiliation. Sara recently received an honorable mention for the Irving Zola award from the Society for Disability Studies for her paper, “Neuroqueering Compositon: Sensual Reflections on the Inconclusive Life of Thoughts,” which she reads from during our conversation, and I think will be a real treat for you all to hear. Sara is a doctoral candidate in the Anthropology and Social Change Program at CIIS, and both her pedagogy and scholarship as well as her grassroots work invite a re-figuration of disability as a vibrant political and cultural experience as opposed to a flat clinical diagnosis.

Notes:

A written transcript of this podcast will be available later today!

Sara Acevedo's piece, "Neuroqueering Composition" cannot be reproduced without her permission.

Scholars Sara cites during interview include: Deleuze and Guattari, Elizabeth Povinelli, Jasbir Puar, David Mitchell, Sharon Snyder, Shelley Tremain, Michel Foucault.

A powerful conversation about neurodiversity, neurodivergent scholarship, disability justice, immanent critique, the experiential and political aspects of disability and neurodiversity, and of course, magic.

Sara Maria Acevedo is a neurodivergent mestiza, activist scholar, educator and disability justice advocate born and raised in Colombia, South America. She has served as a Diversity and Disability Advocacy Fellow at California Institute of Integral Studies and is currently a Fellow in the Center for Writing and Scholarship. She’s also the co-founder of the National Coalition for Latinxs with Disablities and serves on the board of directors. Her current research explores activism as history making and qualitative collaborative research methods to challenge oppressive systems impinging on the right of disabled communities to produce cultural and political spaces of inherent value by and for themselves. Sara is currently exploring and documenting the politics of self-direction and self-governance across neurodivergent grassroots communities serving autistic and otherwise neurodivergent transitioning youth in the Bay Area. She utilizes activist ethnographic methods as a strategy to amplify the voices and lived experiences of disabled communities living oppressively at the intersections of race, class, gender expression, sexual orientation, religious practice, and political affiliation. Sara recently received an honorable mention for the Irving Zola award from the Society for Disability Studies for her paper, “Neuroqueering Compositon: Sensual Reflections on the Inconclusive Life of Thoughts,” which she reads from during our conversation, and I think will be a real treat for you all to hear. Sara is a doctoral candidate in the Anthropology and Social Change Program at CIIS, and both her pedagogy and scholarship as well as her grassroots work invite a re-figuration of disability as a vibrant political and cultural experience as opposed to a flat clinical diagnosis.

Notes:

A written transcript of this podcast will be available later today!

Sara Acevedo's piece, "Neuroqueering Composition" cannot be reproduced without her permission.

Scholars Sara cites during interview include: Deleuze and Guattari, Elizabeth Povinelli, Jasbir Puar, David Mitchell, Sharon Snyder, Shelley Tremain, Michel Foucault.

A conversation with Julian Michels on mythology, blending the rational and intuitive, education, creativity emerging out of difference, deep democracy & process work, alchemy, animism and taking spirits seriously, and considering how the "dead-world" scientific materialist viewpoint is really going.

Julian Michels is a doctoral student who researches comparative philosophy, religion, and mysticism at California Institute of Integral Studies. He is particularly interested in holistic education, myth & ritual, and depth psychology. Julian also currently serves as an associate managing editor with the International Journal of Transpersonal Studies, where he is part of a team working to bring transpersonal scholarship into a new era of visibility and excellence.

A conversation with Julian Michels on mythology, blending the rational and intuitive, education, creativity emerging out of difference, deep democracy & process work, alchemy, animism and taking spirits seriously, and considering how the "dead-world" scientific materialist viewpoint is really going.

Julian Michels is a doctoral student who researches comparative philosophy, religion, and mysticism at California Institute of Integral Studies. He is particularly interested in holistic education, myth & ritual, and depth psychology. Julian also currently serves as an associate managing editor with the International Journal of Transpersonal Studies, where he is part of a team working to bring transpersonal scholarship into a new era of visibility and excellence.