Contemplative Learning and Inquiry across Disciplines

Author Biographies

Author Biographies Mara Adelman PhD is an Associate Professor Asian Studies Program and Department of Communication at Seattle University. She teaches a wide range of social interaction courses; including interpersonal, cross-cultural, organizational , and introduction to communication theory. After years of writing about intimate, personal relationships combined with her alarm over the state of everyday distractions, techno-saturation, and pseudo-intimacy; Mara has focused her intellectual life on the study of restorative solitude. She offers her website, www.solitudecourse.com and faculty workshops in the hopes of addressing this neglected refuge in our everyday life. Chris Bache PhD is professor emeritus in the department of Philosophy and Religious Studies at Youngstown State University where he taught for over thirty years in psychology of religion, transpersonal studies, Buddhism, and Eastern religions. He is also adjunct faculty at the California Institute of Integral Studies in San Francisco, and for two years was the Director of Transformative Learning at the Institute of Noetic Sciences in Petaluma, California. An award-winning teacher and international speaker, his work explores the philosophical implications of non-ordinary states of consciousness, especially psychedelic states. He has written a pioneering book in psychedelic philosophy and collective consciousness entitled Dark Night, Early Dawn (SUNY, 2000). In addition, he has written Lifecycles: Reincarnation and the Web of Life, a comprehensive study of reincarnation and karma in light of contemporary consciousness research. In his book The Living Classroom (SUNY, 2008), Chris presents his revolutionary ideas concerning the transpersonal dimensions of teaching. In addition to working with sacred medicines, Chris has been a Buddhist practitioner for many years. Heesoon Bai PhD is a Professor in the Faculty of Education at Simon Fraser University. She has published widely in academic journals and edited volumes on topics including directions for philosophy of education, teacher education, 391 392 Author Biographies ecology and environmental education, social responsibility and moral agency, and art education and Zen aesthetics. Professor Bai is active in the renewal and revitalization of Philosophy of Education in Canada and elsewhere. Following Raimondo Panikkar’s lead, she understands philosophy’s task for today’s world to be “to know, to love, and to heal.” She brings this “philosophy of philosophy” with her in her research contributions to a wide variety of fields in the area of education. Her most recent collaborative work experiments with a narrative inquiry and re-works one of the most important concepts in my philosophical work: biophilia. Her other research interests include Philosophy of Education, Applied and Comparative Epistemology, Ethics and Moral Education , Ecophilosophy & Ecopsychology, Consciousness Research, and Daoist and Buddhist Philosophies. Daniel Barbezat PhD is a Professor of Economics at Amherst College. At Amherst he has taught a variety of courses but has specialized in economic history . In 2004, he won the Economic History Association’s Jonathan T. Hughes Prize of Excellence in Teaching Economic History. Most recently, Prof. Barbezat has begun work on happiness and economics and the role of introspection and awareness in decision making. John Eric Baugher is Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of Southern Maine. His areas of teaching and research include the Sociology of Death and Dying, Social Psychology, and Contemplative Pedagogy. He is currently writing a book on how routine encounters with dying persons shape the caring capacities of hospice volunteers in the United States and Germany, and how individuals integrate such experiences into their ongoing narratives of self. His recent publications include “The ‘Quiet Revolution’ in Care of the Dying” (2012), a chapter in Inner Peace—Global Impact: Tibetan Buddhism, Leadership and Work, and “When Grieving Adults Support Grieving Children: Tensions in a Peer Support Bereavement Programme” published in the British journal Mortality (2012). Professor Baugher serves on the editorial board for the newly launched Journal of Contemplative Inquiry and is an associate editor for Leading with Spirit, Presence, and Authenticity, which will be published on Jossey-Bass in 2014. Richard C. Brown MA is Co-chair and founder of the Department of Contemplative Education at Naropa University. The department adapts wisdom, compassion, and skillful means drawn from Buddhist and holistic traditions to non-sectarian teacher education. After teaching public elementary school, Richard taught seven years at a Buddhist-inspired K–12 in Boulder, Colorado. He 393 Author Biographies has been involved in the formation of several contemplative schools, has helped develop rites of passage programs, and has published a Buddhist view of child and adolescent spiritual development. Richard...