Stephen Redenti, Ph.D. David Forbes, Ph.D. Rick Repetti, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor Associate Professor Associate Professor
Biology and Biochemistry School Counseling Program Philosophy
Lehman College/CUNY Brooklyn College/CUNY Kingsborough/CUNY
stephen.redenti@lehman.cuny.edu dforbes@brooklyn.cuny.edu rrepetti@kbcc.cuny.edu
718-960-2236 718-951-5876 718-368-5226
The CUNY Contemplatives Network (CCN) is an informal cohort of CUNY and neighboring faculty, researchers, scholars, and practitioners collaborating to promote awareness of empirical research on contemplative practices in general but especially on their applicability within academia. CCN supports the CUNY BA program undergraduate concentration in Contemplative and Integrated Studies and aims to develop a Center for Contemplative Education within CUNY.
Contemplative awareness is a third way of knowing along with rational and empirical forms of inquiry practiced in academic disciplines. It involves focusing attention in a sustained way that ranges from moments of absorption to deeper states of awareness that are the basis of universal compassion. Contemplative practices involve the disciplined use of attention training techniques, such as mindfulness meditation. Contemplative Studies is an emerging interdisciplinary field that investigates contemplative experience and its role in many areas, including neuroscience, public health, social science, political action, public policy, sports, culture, education, counseling, the humanities, religion, spirituality, philosophy, and the creative and performing arts.
The CUNY Contemplatives Network is pleased to announce four items of interest:
1. The CUNY BA program in Contemplative and Integrated Studies
2. The CUNY Mindfulness Lecture Series
3. Our new CUNY-portal-accessible website and Facebook group page
4. The CUNY Center for Contemplative and Integrated Studies
1. CUNY BA program in Contemplative and Integrated Studies.
We are in the process of designing a new CUNY BA program in Contemplative and Integrative Studies. The CUNY BA program allows students to maintain a “home” campus anywhere in CUNY while also taking as many classes as they like anywhere else in CUNY while pursuing a “concentration” (akin to a major) in an area of their own design (in consultation with a mentor and with approval of an advisor) for which there is no current “major”, such as Sustainability. We strongly encourage any CUNY faculty who teach a course that they deem relevant to a concentration in Contemplative and Integrated Studies to submit us a basic proposal including the course title, department, credit hours, bulletin description, and a brief explanation of what the instructor identifies as the justification for inclusion in this curriculum. We will review the course and, if it passes our review process, we will submit it together with all the other courses to the CUNY BA program for inclusion on its list of designated courses relevant to the concentration. Our general strategy will be to err, if at all, on the side of inclusiveness, so please don’t hesitate to submit a course proposal.
2. The CUNY Mindfulness Lecture Series
Date: Second Thursdays, Fall 2012, Time: 7:00 - 8:15 PM
Address: The Graduate Center, CUNY
365 Fifth Avenue, Science Center 4102
New York, NY 10016 (212) 817-7000
Please join us to work to explore the emerging science of mindful practice. All events are free and open to the public.
Description: The second annual CUNY Mindfulness Lecture Series will bring together scientists, scholars and students to present and discuss cross-disciplinary research and theory relative to the science and practice of mindfulness. Mindfulness will be explored through physics, neuroscience, philosophy and psychology. This series will offer CUNY students and the community opportunities to participate in the advancement of learning in this field.
September 13, 2012. Changes in Brain Structure & Function with Mindful Practice, Zoran Josipovic, Ph.D.
New York University, Department of Psychology, Contemplative Science Lab, Metro-Area Research Group on Awareness & Meditation and founder of the Non-Duality Institute. Dr. Josipovic researches the neural correlates of contemplative practice and the impact it has on mind and body. Research modalities include fMRI, EEG in addition to psychophysics and self-report tests.
October 11, 2012. Meditation: Tools for Awakening Courage, Faith and Compassion, Sharon Salzberg.
Sharon Salzberg is cofounder of the Insight Meditation Society (IMS) in Barre, Massachusetts. She has been a student of meditation since 1971, guiding meditation retreats worldwide since 1974. Sharon's latest book is the New York Times Best Seller, Real Happiness: The Power of Meditation: A 28-Day Program. She is a regular contributor to The Huffington Post and is also the author of several other books including The Force of Kindness (2005), Faith: Trusting Your Own Deepest Experience (2002), and Lovingkindness: The Revolutionary Art of Happiness (1995). For more information about Sharon, please visit: www.SharonSalzberg.com.
November 08, 2012. Mindful Museum Education, Rikki Asher, Ed. D and Marcos A. Stafne.
Rikki Asher studied Ch'an (Zen) meditation and yoga with the late Chan Master Sheng Yen in 1976. She is a graduate of the City University of New York (CUNY) with a Master's in Fine Arts and of Columbia University with a Doctorate in Art Education. She combines her background in art and education with meditation utilizing mindfulness techniques in her CUNY Queens College art education courses and work with inner-city youth. She has taught yoga and meditation in synagogues, YMCAs, the Omega Institute and the Dharma Drum Meditation center since 1999. Marcos Stafne is the Head of Education and Visitor Experience for the Rubin Museum of Art where he oversees Development, Family Learning, University Programs, and Museum Tours and Services. He has worked in museum education for 16 years at the Orlando Science Center, Orange County Historical Center, Orlando Museum of Art, and as the Director of Public Programs and Traveling Exhibitions at NYSCI. He also is adjunct faculty at Eugene Lang College, The New School in Education Studies.
December 13, 2012. Origins of Mindful Practice. Lama Migmar Tseten.
Lama Migmar, a Buddhist Chaplain at Harvard University, received both a traditional and a contemporary education in India. He graduated with an Acharya degree in 1979, first in his class out of all students from the four schools. His Holiness The Dalai Lama awarded him a medal for academic excellence. Lama Migmar then served as the head of Sakya Center in Rajpur, India, and the Sakya Monastery in Puruwalla, India, from 1981 to 1989, taking care of the well being of several hundred monastic residents. Lama Migmar supervised the editing and publication of over 50 rare volumes of Sakya literature including the 31 volumes of Sakya Lamdre and the rare Golden Manuscripts of the Five Founding Masters of Sakya.
3. New CUNY-portal-accessible website and Facebook group page
We are in the process of putting together a new, official, and much more user-friendly website that you may access directly or through the CUNY portal. In the meantime, please request membership in our Facebook group, “CUNY Contemplatives Network” at: https://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/groups/189993227719128/ or visit our soon-to-be-replaced website at http://cunycontemplatives.pbworks.com.
4. The CUNY Center for Contemplative and Integrated Studies
Our aspiration is to form a Center for Contemplative and Integrated Studies within CUNY. The Center would not only provide a support for the activities of the CUNY Contemplatives Network, but also bring together faculty participating in the CUNY BA concentration, house our lecture series, and serve as a center for contemplative and integrated faculty development.
Stephen Redenti
David Forbes
Rick Repetti
***David Forbes
Rick Repetti
ALL TALKS ARE OPEN TO THE PUBLIC
Join the CUNY Contemplatives Network on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/groups/189993227719128/
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