An Innovative Pedagogy Workshop Sponsored by UNT's Jain Studies Program

Contemplative educational pedagogies are relevant to a broad array of undergraduate classes across numerous disciplines and fields. Please join us for a roundtable discussion sponsored by UNT's Jain Studies Program to explore the resources that Jainism offers to faculty and instructors looking to incorporate contemplative methodologies into their own classes. Informative presentations by our three invited speakers will be followed by an experiential practice session and ample time for discussion. Light catering will be provided.

Please RSVP here ASAP for the sake of the catering order. Details on the speakers and program are below. Attendees are welcome to come late, or leave early, and join us for however long they are able. Email Leah Kalmanson at leah.kalmanson@unt.edu for more information.

Speakers

Our invited speakers all have backgrounds in comparative and world philosophies, with committments to pedagogical and methodological innovations relevant across many disciplines and fields in the humanities and social sciences and beyond.

Aaron B. Creller is Associate Professor in Philosophy & Religious Studies at the University of North Florida. A founding member of the Society for Teaching Comparative Philosophy with training in creative pedagogies, he brings his background in epistemology and comparative philosophy to his discussion of Jain resources for critical thinking, applicable in a wide variety of classroom contexts.

Monika Kirloskar-Steinbach holds the "Diversifying Philosophy" chair at Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam, having taught previously at the South Asia Institute in Heidelberg (2009-2010), the University of Vienna (2013-2014), and the Oxford College of Emory University (2018-2019). A trailblazer in the field of world philosophies, she brings her background in pluralism and intercultural engagement to her discussion of Jain resources for equity and inclusivity in educational settings.

Sarah Mattice is a Professor and Chair of Philosophy & Religious Studies at the University of North Florida, and a founding member of the Society for Teaching Comparative Philosophy, as well as a trained meditation instructor. She brings her background in contemplative practice to her discussion of Jain meditation techniques in the classroom, as these are applicable broadly to student learning. She will lead us in an experiential practice session following our roundtable discussion.

Program

We'll spend roughly the first 45 minutes with three engaging talks that approach the topic of critical and contemplative pedagogy from different angles: fostering critical thinking skills in our students, utilizing critical pedagogies in our classrooms, and exploring the possible role of contemplative pedagogies across our fields and disciplines.

After a short break for snacks and coffee, we'll resume at 5:30 with an experiential practice session that will help you explore the methods of contemplative pedagogy on your own.

4:30 pm

• Fostering critical thinking skills: Dr. Aaron Creller will focus on critical thinking skills derived from the Jaina logical and epistemological system known as Anekāntavāda and help participants think about how these skills might be applied broadly in undergraduate classrooms.
• Utilizing critical pedagogies: Dr. Monika Kirloskar-Steinbach addresses educators in the humanities and beyond who are working toward diversifying academic curricula through different means, such as drawing in previously neglected content or authors. Using the framing afforded by transnational feminist thinking, her talk will discuss how the story of the Hindu figure Sita can be deployed to this end via the poetry of Kumaran Asan (1919) and an interpretation of the poem Agni-parīkṣā by the Jaina monk Ācārya Tulsi (1960).
• Exploring contemplative pedagogies: Dr. Sarah Mattice will focus on contemplative practices derived from the Jaina tradition of Preksha and help participants think about how these practices might be incorporated into various classroom contexts.

5:30 pm

• Experiential practice session: Dr. Mattice will lead participants through a few practices reflective of both Preksha techniques as well as current methods in contemplative education.

6 pm

• Time for Q&A, discussion, and snacks!