Alumni Profile

EDWINA MORGAN

"I participated in a yoga course in Byron Bay, Australia, led by a teacher from Boulder, Colorado, and the assistant in the yoga retreat was a young woman who had recently graduated from Naropa. I remember thinking she looked radiant and happy and wanting to know how she became that way. After the yoga retreat I went home and looked up Naropa online. Reading the website, I knew immediately that this was the school I needed that I hadn't known existed. Relieved that I wouldn't be moving permanently to India, my family thought it was a good idea. I went to Naropa to try to link my academic work with contemplative practice. I wanted to try and become a 'better' person.

I had never heard of peace studies before going to Naropa, but upon doing my first class with Sudarshan Kapur, Issues of Global Poverty, I knew I had found my passion. As Peace Studies was not yet offered as a degree program while I was at Naropa, I hoped to participate in a program that brought the social justice classes together, combined with classes such as  yoga and meditation, through Interdisciplinary Studies. While studying Gandhi, Malcolm X and Dorothy Day in Personal and Social Transformation, we looked at their lives and their work. In their example was proof that we all have the potential to help create peace. Sometimes though, I realized focusing more on the social and less on the personal side led to feeling burnt out. I am still learning the lesson of how to sustain activism. The official Interdisciplinary Studies degree also included the emphases: Humanities and Peace Studies.

My teachers helped me look deeply into the complexity interlocking oppressions, break down constructions of looking at the world as only 'good and evil', and learn to see my role in the perpetuation of injustice and therefore the potential I have to contribute to change.

We also engaged in advocacy work, highlighting the importance of peace studies as a necessary program for a university such as Naropa. I perceived an institutional potential and responsibility to help train students to engage with the world and themselves in a way that alleviates suffering.

While I was at Naropa, I had the opportunity to do an internship with the Urgent Action Fund for Women's Rights (UAF). UAF is an amazing grantmaking organization focused on global women's rights activism. After meeting Rita Thapa, a Nepali feminist peace activist who was visiting UAF, I knew Nepal would be the next part of my journey, carrying everything I learned at Naropa and UAF with me in every step and breath.

After graduating from Naropa, I moved to Nepal to work with Nagarik Aawaz (Citizen's Voice) a peace building organization committed to supporting youth who have been displaced due to conflict. After working in Nepal for over 1 1/2 years, I returned to Australia and now am studying for my Master of Letters in Peace and Conflict Studies at the University of Sydney. I also have a plan to help create a women's fund in Australia. I would like the organization to focus on activists' needs and operate in a way that supports activism and women's rights.