ACMHE Conferences

Overview

The Association for Contemplative Mind in Higher Education (ACMHE), a multidisciplinary professional academic association of academic scholars and administrators, has convened conferences at Amherst College in Amherst, MA, annually since 2009. These gatherings explore the many ways that contemplative practices serve teaching, learning and knowing in higher education.

 

Integrity of Practice: A Contemplative Vision for Higher Education

The Fifth Annual ACMHE Conference
November 8-10, 2013 at Amherst College, Amherst, MA
$267.00 – $420.00 (Lower rates for ACMHE members)

Submit a Proposal / Register / Learn More

Over the past four years, members of the Association for Contemplative Mind in Higher Education have gathered at annual conferences to explore contemplative approaches to all aspects of post-secondary education and to share their questions and discoveries.

During this time, the application of contemplative approaches in educational contexts has increased considerably, both inside and outside the classroom. Neuroscientific research and the increasing use of these practices have been demonstrating their many benefits. As a result, many more students and colleagues are aware of contemplative and reflective practices and are more open to applying them toward particular goals and outcomes.

With these developments in mind, this conference will explore how contemplative practices and perspectives are currently transforming higher education.

The conference will open with a plenary panel discussion that will initiate a conversation based on the following questions:

• As contemplative practices are being adapted and developed in higher education, how are we considering issues of integrity and tradition?
• How might commitments to inclusion and access be strengthened by a closer examination of the relationships between “integrity” and “diversity”? Might a focus on “integrity of practice” also weaken such commitments? How can our deepening practice help us hold these two possibilities as one?
• How do we bring the benefits of practice to address specific and urgent needs without losing their broader transformative potential?
• Can we viably assess the effects of our efforts without reducing the practices to narrow instruments?

This conference will include ample time for conversation and sharing among participants through open space sessions, interactive presentations, contemplative practices, panels, and round table and plenary discussions.

When contemplative methods are employed, a variety of outcomes are possible. When practices are used skillfully, the space that they create for students to encounter the emotional, ethical, intellectual and even physical aspects of what they are learning can bring about positive outcomes: both material and immaterial, measurable and immeasurable.

We welcome proposals concerning contemplative approaches to all aspects of post-secondary education–every innovation will have an impact and is an opportunity to learn and grow. Special attention, however, will be given to those proposals that address the theme of “integrity of practice,” in terms of intention, vision, instrumentalism, appropriation, inclusion, and access.

Proposals may be submitted online until July 1, 2013. All proposals will be evaluated by a blind peer-review process.

Past Conference Programs

 

2012 Conference: Contemplative Approaches in the Diverse Academic Community: Inquiry, Connection, Creativity, and Insight (.pdf)

 

2011 Conference: The Contemplative Campus (.pdf)

 

2010 Conference: The Contemplative Academy (.pdf)

 

2009 Conference: The Contemplative Heart of Higher Education (.pdf)

 

Videos from Past ACMHE Conferences

2012

Contemplating Race, Law, and Justice: Some Notes on Pedagogy for Changing the World Rhonda V. Magee, Chair of the Board of the Center for Contemplative Mind in Society, Professor of Law and Co-Director, Center for Teaching Excellence, University of San Francisco

 

2011

Always On: Exploring Undergraduate Attitudes Towards Information Technology David Levy, Professor, Information School, University of Washington

 

2010

Bringing Attention to Mindfulness Research Amishi Jha, Director of The Jha Lab and Associate Professor of Psychology, University of Miami

 

Contemplative Practices in the Classroom: Value Added or Changes Everything? Panel discussion featuring Susan Burggraf (Associate Professor of Contemplative Psychology and Associate Dean of Undergraduate Education, Naropa University), Barry Kroll (Professor of English, Lehigh University), Judith Simmer-Brown (Professor of Religious Studies, Naropa University), and Thomas Coburn (Visiting Scholar, Brown University and President Emeritus, Naropa University)

 

Daniel P. Barbezat, Professor of Economics, Amherst College

 

Functional and Structural Changes Associated With Meditation Sara Lazar, Dept. of Psychiatry, Massachusetts General Hospital

 

Contemplative Multitasking(?)

David Levy (Professor, Information School, University of Washington) and Alfred Kaszniak (Professor, Psychology, Psychiatry, and Neurology, University of Arizona)

 

Q&A with Sara Lazar, Alfred Kaszniak, David Levy, and Daniel Barbezat

2009

Keynote Address: Higher Education in a Time of Stress: The Kingdom is Now or Never Diana Chapman Walsh, former President of Wellesley College

 

Head, Heart, and Hand: Cultivating the Contemplative in Higher Education David Levy, Professor, Information School, University of Washington

 

Consumption and the Pursuit of Happiness Daniel P. Barbezat, Professor of Economics, Amherst College

 

Contemplation Without Context Renee Hill, Associate Professor of Philosophy, Virginia State University

 

Cultivating Compassion: Views from Contemplative Practice and Social Neuroscience Alfred Kaszniak, Professor, Psychology, Psychiatry, and Neurology, University of Arizona

 

Poetry reading Marilyn Nelson, Professor Emerita of English at the University of Connecticut; former (2001—2006) Poet Laureate of the State of Connecticut