“Freedom Inside?  Yoga and Meditation in the Carceral State”

Professor Farah Godrej at the University of California-Riverside

Friday, February 18 @ 1:30pm (EST)

A virtual event: zoom link below

 

The talk examines the role of yoga and meditation in U.S. prisons. How do self-disciplinary practices such as yoga and meditation work when they are taught inside unjust systems?   Do they produce political passivity and compliance if offered as palliatives to accept, cope and comply with unjust power structures? Or, might they prove disruptive to mass incarceration if offered as tools to develop awareness and attunement toward injustice, to engage in non-conformist responses that include critique and challenge?  The research is based on four years of immersion in prisons and prison volunteer communities and over sixty in-depth interviews with those who teach and practice inside prisons.  Discussion will follow.

Sponsored by the Bhagwan Neminath Jain Faculty and Academic Programming Endowment, the Mahavir Ahimsa and Peaceful Living Experience (MAPLE) Fund ,the American Studies program, the Asian & Asian Studies Institute, & the Department of Political Science.

 

Join Zoom Meeting

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88212080222?pwd=NHR3NjJsQ3lFcEF4RDM4SkwwdGQ3Zz09

Meeting ID: 882 1208 0222

Passcode: wzL2Rn

---