Residential Fellowship Opportunity

The Frederick P. Lenz Residential Fellowship in Buddhism and American Culture & Values

Application deadline: December 1, 2012
APPLY NOW!

The Office of Academic Affairs is pleased to announce that applications are being taken for the 2013-14 Frederick P. Lenz Foundation Residential Fellowship for Buddhist Studies and American Culture and Values. This is an opportunity for faculty and other professionals planning sabbaticals during the 2013–14 academic year to spend a semester on the Naropa University campus in Boulder, Colorado, conducting a research, artistic, social action or other project that relates Buddhist philosophy and practice to an aspect of American culture and values.  This is an ideal place for a Buddhism fellowship, Religious Studies fellowship or sabbatical fellowship in Religion.

For more information or to apply for the 2013-14 academic year: Frederick P. Lenz Foundation Residential Fellowship for Buddhist Studies and American Culture and Values

Scholars Chosen for the 2012-13 Academic Year

Sarah J. Heidt, Ph.D.

Contemplative Pedagogies for Literary Study

Sarah J. Heidt is an associate professor of English at Kenyon College, where she teaches nineteenth-century British literature and culture, auto/biography and life-writing, women's writing, and literatures of memory. She holds a Ph.D. in English from Cornell University and has published essays about Victorian life-writing and contemporary memoir and film. She began Zen practice in 2010 and is a formal student at Zen Mountain Monastery in upstate New York. While at Naropa in spring 2013, she will be exploring intersections of contemplative practice and literary study.

Scholars Chosen for the 2011-12 Academic Year

David R. Loy, Ph.D.

The Great Encounter: Why Buddhism and Modernity Need Each Other

Dr. David R. Loy is a professor of Buddhist and comparative philosophy, writer and Zen teacher in the Sanbo Kyodan tradition of Japanese Zen Buddhism. He is a distinguished author who has written several books and is regularly published in multiple publications, as well as serving on editorial and advising boards for various journals. Dr. Loy’s past research has focused upon the encounter between Buddhism and modernity, exhibiting special concern regarding social and ecological issues. His fellowship work will correlate directly to his research, as he focuses on why Buddhism and modernity need each other. While at Naropa, he will begin writing a new book that will reveal the contemplative dialogue between Buddhism and the West.

Arturo J. Bencosme, Ph.D.

Heart to Organizations: Contemplativeness-based Organizational Learning and Strategic Thinking

Originally studying engineering, Dr. Arturo J. Bencosme has been involved with organizational learning for over 30 years. His work includes teaching, management, and individual work with private, public, and non-profit service organizations. Dr. Bencosme has served as a consultant, facilitator, and educator in the fields of visionary strategic planning, organizational leadership and servant leadership. As a fellow at Naropa, he plans to develop a contemplative approach to enhancing learning organizations. In conjunction with Joseph Campbell’s The Hero’s Journey, Dr. Bencosme’s project explores how contemplativeness, especially meditation, can affect organizations. His work will focus upon how contemplativeness is demonstrated in the work place and how Naropa graduates can bring contemplative practice into the work place. Dr. Bencosme hopes to contribute to expanding the outreach of Naropa into the organizational world including businesses, nonprofits and so forth, and to strengthen the personal and professional journeys of Naropa’s students.

Scholars Chosen for the 2010–11 Academic Year

Cary Gaunt, Ph.D.
Cultivating Ecological Enlightenment: Buddhist Pathways to a Sustainable Way of Life

Cary Gaunt, Ph.D. is a passionate researcher, teacher, environmental consultant, eco-spiritual wilderness guide, and Centering Prayer facilitator. At Naropa University, she is conducting research on Buddhist role models of ecological awakening and sustainability practice. This complements her earlier work on Christian role models completed for her Ph.D. in Environmental Studies from Antioch University New England, and is part of a larger body of research on how wisdom traditions and practices support ecological awakening and action. Her Lenz Fellowship provided her the opportunity to scope a comprehensive journal article and book proposal(s) about her research on the life stories of Buddhist and Christian environmental role models, especially the spiritual practices and wisdom teachings that inform their journeys.

Philip Meckley, PhD
Raft of Straw: The Epistle of James as Jesus Sutra

Philip Meckley is an associate professor in the Department of Religion and Philosophy at Kansas Wesleyan University, and will be in residence during the fall 2010 semester. His fellowship work "Raft of Straw: The Epistle of James as Jesus Sutra" will trace the Buddhist roots of Western scriptural documents and demonstrate how Buddhist roots in literature influence Western thought.

Elise Young, PhD
History as Dharma: Teaching the Middle East and Africa

Elise Young is a professor in the Department of History at Westfield State College, and will be in residence during Naropa's fall 2010 semester. Young's fellowship project "History as Dharma: Teaching the Middle East and Africa" will create a teacher-training model-based on a historiographical model rooted in Buddhist/Yogic and feminist epistemologies. The pedagogy is rooted in contemplative practices.

Kim Russo, MFA
Drawing on the Dharma: Contemporary Art and Buddhist Practice

Kim Russo is currently the chair of the Department of Fine Arts at the Ringling College of Art and Design, and will be in residence from Oct 15-Dec 15, 2010. Russo's fellowship project "Drawing on the Dharma: Contemporary Art and Buddhist Practice" will produce an extended article on the methodologies of contemporary artists who are committed Buddhist practitioners. The proposed article will lay the groundwork for a book on the same subject, and will highlight the integrated Buddhist/artistic practices of individual artists including Suzanne Lacy, Ross Bleckner, and Nancy Holt.

Scholar Chosen for the 2009–10 Academic Year

Hillary Stephenson
Pedagogy of Awakening: Exploring the Relationship Between Zen and Transformative Pedagogy

Hillary Stephenson has been facilitating dialogue and transformative group process on issues of diversity and social justice for almost ten years, with a particular focus on doing antiracism work in white communities.  A Zen Buddhist, she recently spent five years as a resident at the Zen Center of Los Angeles, which significantly deepened her commitment to the cultivation of sangha practice.  While at Naropa, she conducted dissertation research on the relationship between Zen and transformative pedagogy, with a particular focus on the way issues of diversity and oppression are explored in the university classroom.  This research was inspired by Hillary’s experiences doing popular health education in South Africa as an undergraduate, her doctoral program in Transformative Inquiry at CIIS, and a recent return to the women’s studies classroom as adjunct faculty at Cal State Long Beach.  Hillary hopes to contribute to the fields of contemplative education and critical pedagogy, affirming education as a vehicle for transformation.  Ms. Stephenson will be in residence during the fall 2009 semester.

Scholars Chosen for the 2008–09 Academic Year

Erin McCarthy, PhD
St. Lawrence University   
While at Naropa, Dr. McCarthy developed her teaching practices, pursued philosophical research and deepened her practice of Zen and yoga in order to further integrate these in her academic and personal life. She also completed the final chapter of her book Ethics Embodied, which addresses ethical being-in-the-world from a comparative feminist philosophical perspective. Quoting from her application, Dr. McCarthy planned to “discuss the prospects for integrating aspects of Japanese Zen Buddhism, contemporary Japanese philosophy and western ethics through a feminist lens. More specifically, I propose an alternative orientation for thinking about selfhood and ethics that draws on my comparison of Western feminist and Japanese philosophy…. I will argue the model of self and values encouraged in the critical integration of Japanese philosophy, Buddhism and feminism lead to a self better suited for fostering global citizenship by encouraging the idea that individuals are at once embedded in a particular local context but also citizens of the world.” Dr. McCarthy was in residence during the spring 2009 semester.

Elizabeth Lozano, PhD
Loyola University Chicago   
Dr. Lozano furthered her study and understanding of the Buddhist teachings on nonviolence, and applied this knowledge to the study of nonviolent resistance as practiced by U.S. groups in international settings. More specifically, she planned to:

  • “Investigate the ways in which the work of U.S. groups, such as Witness for Peace and FOR, appeal to core American values such as autonomy, freedom of conscience, self-determination and equality.”
  • “Study the contribution of American Buddhism to our understanding of nonviolent resistance, and of the relationship between nonviolence and gender.”
  • “Study how the work of solidarity between American and Colombian groups relates to Buddhist principles and practices of nonviolence.”

Dr. Lozano was in residence during the spring 2009 semester.

John Whalen-Bridge, PhD
National University of Singapore  
Dr. Whalen-Bridge has been working for several years on the transmission of Buddhism into American culture, and is currently working on a book about Buddhism, literary adaptation and progressive politics entitled Dharma Bums Progress. While at Naropa, Dr. Whalen-Bridge researched and wrote about “devotion and authority in Buddhism, a subject that will be less directly literary and more anthropological.” He is “interested in particular in ways in which the 'guru' system has been modified, and ways in which it has had to continually authenticate itself in the face of a sometimes caustic rationalism.” Dr. Whalen-Bridge was in residence during late spring and early summer 2009.

For more information or to apply for the 2013-14 academic year: Frederick P. Lenz Foundation Residential Fellowship for Buddhist Studies and American Culture and Values

Academic Affairs

©