SELECTED COURSES TAUGHT AT STANFORD UNIVERSITY

“Creative and Contemplative Movement: Intro to Qigong,” primary instructor and course designer

Spring 2024

In the class, students will be introduced to qigong as moving meditation. Qigong, loosely translated as energy cultivation, is a branch of Traditional Medicine based on the principles of Buddhism and Taoism. It can integrate the mind and body and cultivate awareness of the present moment. In this class, we will conceptualize qigong through the lenses of both creativity and contemplation and practice it as a slow dance-meditation. Students will learn exercises based on the Yoqi® Six Phases of Qi Flow, developed by Marisa Cranfill, as well as engage in creative, improvisational movement. Readings to support the practice include writings by contemporary scholars and practitioners, and articles about the most recent evidence-based research. Assignments include short written reflections as well as solo and collaborative creative projects.

Cross-listed between LifeWorks and Dance Studies

“Psychedelics and Social Justice,” co-instructor

Spring 2024

This course will provide an overview of current social justice issues in psychedelic research, including the impact of colonization and systemic inequality on resource allocation during the multinational resurgence of interest in psychedelic medicine in the 21st century. Through a combination of lectures, facilitated small-group discussions, and creative as well as experiential activities, the course is designed to promote self-inquiry and cultural humility while reflecting on current human practices with consciousness-modifying agents. 

Cross-listed between LifeWorks, Psychiatry, and Comparative Studies in Race and Ethnicity

“Kinesthetic Delight: Movement and Meditation,” primary instructor and course designer

Spring 2023 & Winter 2024

“Meditation” often conjures images of people sitting quietly in a state of peaceful contemplation. “Mindfulness” is another word that suggests the prominence of the mind in meditation; however, as contemplatives and scholars from various fields have argued, though the mind resides in the cranium, it functions throughout the body. In this class, students will playfully explore embodied and dynamic forms of “meditation” and “mindfulness” through movement, in an effort to integrate the mind and body. Examples of modalities include Lisa Nelson’s Tuning Scores, Barbara Dilley’s Contemplative Dance Practices, and other movement practices, such as qigong, laughter yoga, psychogeography, and other dance forms. Students will work in teams to develop their own movement-meditation scores inspired by these practices.

Cross-listed between LifeWorks and Theater and Performance Studies

“Yoga Psychology for Resilience and Creativity,” co-instructor and course designer

Spring 2022 & Winter 2024

In this integrative class, learn about the practice, psychology, and philosophy of yoga as a conceptual model for well-being. Supported by findings in modern neuroscience and psychological research, yoga is an ancient, holistic modality that integrates body, mind, and community through ethical awareness, movement, breathing, and meditation. This integration lends itself to embodied, creative expression as well as other healing modalities you will explore, such as theater and performance, dance, qigong, and laughter yoga. Yoga philosophy and postures are drawn from Dr. Christiane Brems’s protocol developed as a therapeutic yoga class. The weekly performance exercises we will practice were developed by theater makers such as Augusto Boal and the UK-based performance duo Curious.

Cross-listed between LifeWorks, Psychiatry, and Theater and Performance Studies

“Tools for Meaningful Communities,” co-instructor and course designer

Winter 2022 & 2023

How can we live together and honor both difference and belonging? How do we create community amidst divisiveness and the existential threats of climate change, oppression of marginalized peoples, and our disconnection from ourselves and each other? We are inherently relational and have the potential to heal, flourish, and lead. Leadership and changemaking must be rooted in a commitment to deep inner work that cultivates wellbeing, insight, and wisdom. Inner work radiates outward to shape the systems that create and sustain our societies. In this class, grounded in your experiences at Stanford, you will cultivate skills and tools to enhance your intrapersonal, interpersonal and extrapersonal capacities to enact change for yourself and others. Working in teams, you will learn about and practice building community through the application of interdisciplinary frameworks that provide multiple perspectives on the transformation of the self, our relations with each other, our communities, and societal systems.

Cross-listed between LifeWorks, LEAD, and Anthropology

“Art, Meditation, and Creation,” primary instructor and course designer

Fall 2021 & Spring 2023

Art and meditation invite us to be fully present in our minds and bodies. This class will give you tools to integrate mind and body as you explore artworks on display at the university’s museums and throughout campus. In your engagement with activity-based learning at these venues, you will attend to perception and embodiment in the process of writing and making creative work about art. You will also learn meditation techniques and be exposed to authors who foreground the importance of the body in both writing and making art. For your meditation-centered and research-based final creative project, you will have the option of writing an experimental visual analysis or devising a performance.

Cross-listed between LifeWorks, Art History, and Stanford Arts Institute  

Learn about and practice laughter yoga, combined with theater exercises. Laughter yoga (distinct from traditional movement-based yoga) is a modality that integrates laughter exercises with yogic breathing. Explore the growing field of research on laughter yoga and its positive effects on wellbeing and other health outcomes. Examine the various dimensions of laughter yoga as a form of cardiovascular and aerobic exercise, mindfulness, and play. Use theater exercises to leverage the power of performative, healing laughter and to cultivate embodied awareness, creativity, resilience, and joy. Readings and exercises will draw from the work of pioneers in the fields of laughter wellness and socially engaged theater, such as Madan Kataria and Augusto Boal.

Cross-listed between Theater and Performance Studies and Wellness Education

“Performing Race, Gender, and Sexuality,” primary instructor and course designer

Winter 2021, Winter 2020, Spring 2018, and Fall 2022

In this theory and practice-based course, students will examine performances by and scholarly texts about artists who critically and mindfully engage race, gender, and sexuality. Students will cultivate their skills as artist-scholars through written assignments and the creation of performances in response to the assigned material. Attendance and written reflection about a live performance event on campus are required. Students will also learn various meditation practices as tools for making and critiquing performance, in both our seminar discussions and performance workshops. We will approach mindfulness as method and theory in our own practice, as well as in relation to the works studied. We will also consider the ethics and current debates concerning the mindfulness industry. Examples of artists studied include James Luna, Nao Bustamante, Renee Cox, William Pope.L, Cassils, boychild, Curious, Adrian Piper, Xandra Ibarra, Valérie Reding, Guillermo Gomez-Peña, and Ana Mendieta.

Cross-listed between Theater and Performance Studies, LifeWorks, Comparative Studies in Race and Ethnicity, Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, and Stanford Arts Institute

“Tools for a Meaningful Life,” co-instructor and course co-designer

Spring 2020, Summer 2020, Fall 2020, Summer 2021, Spring 2022 and Fall 2023

Explores the foundational skills for a meaningful life. Features lectures and experiential practice workshops from instructors within and beyond the university. Draws on research and practices from fields related to psychology, literature, critical studies in race, gender, and sexuality, the visual and performing arts, as well as wisdom traditions from around the world. Focuses on developing human capacities necessary for a meaningful life, including presence, courage, compassion, resilience, imagination, and gratitude. Examples of workshops and in-class activities include theater improv, movement, laughter yoga, meditation, and qigong.

“Laugh to Relax,” primary instructor and co-designer

Winter 2022, Fall 2022, and Winter 2024

Learn about and practice laughter yoga, a unique and playful modality that integrates laughter exercises with yogic breathing (this practice is distinct from traditional movement-based yoga). Explore the growing field of research on laughter yoga and its positive effects on wellbeing and other health outcomes. Examine the various dimensions of laughter yoga as a form of fitness, mindfulness, and play. Use a variety of meditation exercises to leverage the power of performative, healing laughter and to cultivate embodied awareness, creativity, resilience, and joy.

“Art, Writing, and Performance: The Rhetoric of Visual Analysis,” primary instructor and course designer

Fall 2018, Winter 2019 (two sections), Spring 2019 (two sections)

What do art, writing, and performance have in common? Each involves gestures enacted by the body, whether they are large brushstrokes painted on canvas or miniscule calligraphic markings applied from pen to paper. Given the increasing amount of time we spend on screens at the expense of attending to our bodies, this class will encourage you to re-connect with your bodies as sources of knowledge, by critically responding to visual artworks on display at the university’s museums, as well as outdoor artworks on campus such as George Segal’s Gay Liberation monument and the Papa New Guinea Sculpture Garden. In your development as embodied writers, you will be exposed to authors who foreground the importance of the body and the senses in the act of writing. To attend to perception and embodiment as critical modes of writing about art, you will learn basic meditation techniques centered on body awareness. We will also occasionally play theater games to better understand the performative aspects of writing and rhetoric. View promotional video here: