Contemplative Studies at Brown

Recognizing the importance of secularism and the diversity of faiths represented at our colleges, universities, and professional schools remains crucial. At the same time, as other peer institutions have shown, there is scope and desire for contemplative studies on campus. In 2014, Brown University became the first major North American Research University to establish a formal undergraduate concentration (major) in Contemplative Studies. This pioneering multi-disciplinary concentration requires 14 courses including a core set of 5 required courses in relevant Brain Sciences and Humanities. Students then choose a Sciences track that features Cognitive Psychology and Neuroscience or a Humanities Track that features Philosophy of Mind and Contemplative Religious Traditions. Art concentrations within the Humanities Track are also possible.

At Brown, Contemplative Studies takes an evidence-based and deeply interdisciplinary approach to what “contemplation” means. It encompasses scientific, humanistic, and artistic approaches to the human contemplative experience across place, human communities, and time. Brown’s integrative contemplative pedagogy combines a traditional “third-person” academic approach with what it calls “critical first-person engagement” that allows students to actually experience some of the contemplative practices about which faculty teach. At its core, a contemplative studies curriculum facilitates direct and empirical engagement, combining study of the physiological, neurological and cognitive effects and the clinical impacts of regular contemplative practices with courses that are centered on the historical, cultural, philosophical and artistic manifestations of contemplative praxis.

Institutions including Syracuse, Rice, Rutgers, the University of Virginia, and others are following Brown’s example. In addition to undergraduate curricular offerings in the humanities, sciences, and social sciences, contemplative studies projects across graduate and professional programs are emerging, as are interdisciplinary research efforts through institutions such as the University of Virginia’s Contemplative Sciences Center, Emory University’s Collaborative for Contemplative Studies, NYU’s Contemplative Studies Project, and Stanford’s Center for Compassion and Altruism Research and Education. In part, this interest reflects the times in which we are living, and the worlds into which college and professional school graduates are embarking when they leave campus. As history and tradition have demonstrated, engagement in contemplative pedagogy and practice serves to balance – if not mitigate against – life’s uncertainties.

See the documents in Additional Resources for more information.