Event: AEPL Winter 2024 Workshop on Buddhist Philosophy and Practice in Pedagogy

Dear Colleagues,

We are thrilled to invite you to start the new year–2024!–by joining a two-part online workshop on Buddhist Philosophy and Practice in Pedagogy. Led by longtime AEPL contributor and former chair Laurence Musgrove, the workshop will review six Buddhist concepts on the nature of universal reality and human behavior and consider how they might serve as heuristics or modes of analysis to benefit our understanding of the teaching of college English and the language arts. The workshop is offered free of charge and will take place on Zoom.

Click here to register (or paste this link in your browser: https://forms.gle/k5kZg9ai2FgjkPZf9)! Registered participants will receive a Zoom link 1-2 days before each event. Further details, including a short biography of the workshop facilitator, follow below.

Buddhist Philosophy and Practice in English Pedagogy—Expanding the Scholarship

Part 1: Friday, January 19, 2024, 3:00-5:00pm, Eastern

Part 2: Friday, January 26, 2024, 3:00-5:00pm, Eastern

The purpose of these workshops is to review six Buddhist concepts on the nature of universal reality and human behavior and consider how they might serve as heuristics or modes of analysis to benefit our understanding of the teaching of college English and the language arts. The workshop is offered free of charge and will take place on Zoom.

Workshop 1: Introduction to Six Key Concepts (Fri, Jan 19, 2024, 3-5pm, Eastern)

The purpose of this workshop is to introduce six core concepts in the Buddhist wisdom tradition as they describe the scientific reality of the universe or the way of all things (causality, impermanence, and interbeing) and the psychological reality of human behavior and relationships (suffering, equanimity, and freedom). Participants will share previous experiences with and knowledge about Buddhist principles and practices, reflect in writing on how they might apply these concepts heuristically to a range of issues in their teaching, and share their ideas in small groups.

Workshop 2: Application of Buddhist Perspective to Teaching and Learning in College English (Fri, Jan 26, 2024, 3-5pm, Eastern)

The purpose of this second workshop is to review the six core concepts, learn how participants have begun to test these concepts against their teaching, expand the vocabulary of Buddhist concepts into a shared glossary of subject terms, and form research teams to investigate relevant scholarship in the field, as well as areas of new research.

Laurence Musgrove is Professor of English at Angelo State University in San Angelo, Texas, where he teaches creative writing, composition, and literature from a Buddhist perspective. His articles, poems, and cartoons have appeared in JAEPL, he served as Chair of the AEPL Executive Committee 2009-2012, and he organized the 2012 Estes Park AEPL Summer Conference on Visual Thinking. In a recent article “A Buddhist Educator’s Perspective on Well-Being Across the Curriculum,” Laurence outlines his past scholarly work on mental attitude and attention, his emerging interests in Buddhism, six foundational Buddhist core concepts and three trainings of the mind, a definition of a Buddhist educational theory and method, how three of his English courses have been shaped by these influences, and some implications for other disciplines across the curriculum. Laurence also has three verse collections from Lamar University Literary Press: Local Bird, The Bluebonnet Sutras, and A Stranger’s Heart.

Please join us!

With gratitude and encouragement,

AEPL’s Executive Committee

Click here to learn more about the Assembly’s work!

Eric Leake, Ph.D.
MARC Director, Associate Professor
Department of English
Texas State University