Week 8: Spirit Realm in Academia: A Movement for Spiritual Liberation -Brittany Carlson
In preparation for this week’s
discussions, we read “Tarot Cards: The Model Minority and The Shopkeeper” from
the Open in Emergency box; “Spiritually
in the Academy: Reclaiming from the Margins and Evoking a Transformative Way of
Knowing the World” by Riyad A. Shahjahan; “Belief in Mental Health” by Kai
Cheng Thom from Open in Emergency;
and “Earth Song as Storywork: Reclaiming Indigenous Knowledges” by Frances Wyld
and Bronwyn Fredericks. The Model Minority tarot card from the Open in Emergency box can be related to
the theme of the week in the sense that a few of its aspects can be seen quite
frequently in academia. The Shopkeeper tarot card from the Open in Emergency box can be related to the theme of the week in
the in the sense that it symbolizes the knowledge of bargaining which is what
professor Valverde probably had to do to get this class introduced into the
Asian American Studies department. In “Spiritually in the Academy: Reclaiming
from the Margins and Evoking a Transformative Way of Knowing the World” by
Riyad A. Shahjahan, the author attempts to answer the question, “Why is
spirituality marginalized in the academy?” by examining the terrain of
knowledge production and worldviews that encompass the Western academy. This
relates to the theme of the week because it examines possible reasons for why
spirituality is not studied in academia. In “Belief in Mental Health” by Kai
Cheng Thom from Open in Emergency, the
reading shows the pressures that academia can inflict upon the spiritual health
of a person in the sense that it caused the author to attempt suicide from the
spiritual and emotional harm of bullying in school caused by the author coming
out as transgender. This relates to the theme of the week because it shows how
an academic environment can effect a person’s mental health through bullying. In
“Earth Song as Storywork: Reclaiming Indigenous Knowledges” by Frances Wyld and
Bronwyn Fredericks, the article explores the possibility for Indigenous ways of
learning, which draw on earth song and storywork, to be utilized and
incorporated into the academy, explaining the ways in which this incorporation
can be beneficial and bring harmony to the works done in academia. This relates
to the theme of the week because it acts as an example of a possible way that
the spirit realm can be incorporated into teaching. I liked this week’s reading
in particular because I feel that Spirit Realm Studies should be a more
integral part of academics and I would love to take more classes on the topic
if they were offered.
Question:
Why are institutions reluctant to teach more about Spirit Realm Studies in an
academic environment?
Literature
Cited:
Open
in Emergency. “Tarot Cards: The Model Minority and The Shopkeeper.”
Riyad
A. Shahjahan. “Spiritually in the Academy: Reclaiming from the Margins and
Evoking a Transformative Way of Knowing the World.”
Kai
Cheng Thom. “Belief in Mental Health.” Open
in Emergency.
Frances
Wyld and Bronwyn Fredericks. “Earth Song as Storywork: Reclaiming Indigenous
Knowledges.”
Media
Cited:
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