Dan Hirshberg, assistant professor of religious studies and director of the contemplative studies program
Dan Hirshberg, assistant professor of religious studies and director of the contemplative studies program, offered a lecture and a workshop for Brown University’s Contemplative Studies Initiative.
His lecture focused on “Secular Rhetoric in Contemplative Pedagogy,” which concurred with recent critiques and advocated for pluralist discourse as representative of the field’s objectives and practices. The interactive workshop introduced some of the adverse effects of technology usage and featured the practice of an original contemplative exercise, “Smartphone Dis/Connect: FOMO,” which invites participants to explore the subtle physiological and psychological impacts of smartphone alerts and notifications.
Brown University launched the first Contemplative Studies concentration (major) for undergraduates in the world and is a leader in the interdisciplinary research of contemplation across the humanities, arts, and sciences.