Description

In Yoga Minds/ Writing Bodies/ Christy Wenger argues for the inclusion of Eastern-influenced contemplative education within writing studies. She observes that/ although we have "embodied" writing education in general by discussing the rhetorics of racialized/ gendered/ and disabled bodies/ we have done substantially less to address the particular bodies that occupy our classrooms. She proposes that we turn to contemplative education practices that engages student bodies through fusing a traditional curriculum with contemplative practices including yoga/ meditation/ and the martial arts. Drawing strength from the recent "quiet revolution" (Zajonc) of contemplative pedagogy within postsecondary education and a legacy of field interest attributable to James Moffett/ this project draws on case studies of first-year college writers to present contemplative pedagogy as a means of teaching students mindfulness of their writing and learning in ways that promote the academic/ rhetorical work accomplished in first-year composition classes while at the same time remaining committed to a larger scope of a writer's physical and emotional well-being.