Video Library

Critical Thought & Contemplative Wisdom for Our Times with Dr. Michael Eric Dyson

For this Fellowship Forum, we invited Dr. Michael Eric Dyson to join us for a session on critical social thought, prophetic witness, contemplative wisdom and his latest book, Long Time Coming: Reckoning with Race in America. The Garrison Institute Fellowship Forum is a series of conversations with extraordinary leaders with expertise and experience in awareness-based contemplative wisdom, the science of interconnection, generative action, and collective healing. Each conversation is co-facilitated by the Garrison Institute Fellows and Fellowship Director Dr. Angel Acosta.

Angel Acosta: Contemplative Science & Practice Through a Healing-Centered Perspective

Over the last century, particular movements in the field of education have moved toward restorative, holistic, trauma-informed, and mindfulness-based approaches to instruction and educational research. This webinar explores the rise of a restorative and healing-centered paradigm in education, while also examining the connections between this larger movement to contemplative science, pedagogy and practice. With the eruption of protests in response to police brutality and the enduring legacy of racialized inequality in the U.S., collective trauma and grief have become incessant. In addition, the ways in which the COVID-19 has ravaged the world has revealed our fragility and interconnectedness.

This webinar invites participants to reflect on how we can harness the power of contemplative science and practice to better understand community care and collective healing. For the last decade, Dr. Angel Acosta has worked to bridge the fields of leadership, social justice, and mindfulness. He completed his doctorate in curriculum and teaching at Teachers College, Columbia University. Angel has supported educational leaders and their students by facilitating leadership trainings, creating pathways to higher education, and designing dynamic learning experiences. His dissertation explored healing-centered education as a promising framework for educational leadership development. After participating in the Mind and Life Institute’s Academy for Contemplative Leadership, Angel began consulting and developing learning experiences that weave leadership development with conversations about inequality and healing, to support educational leaders through contemplative and restorative practices. As a former trustee for the Center for Contemplative Mind in Society, he participated as a speaker and discussant at the Asia Pacific Forum on Holistic Education in Kyoto, Japan. He continues to consult for organizations like the NYC Department of Education, UNICEF, Columbia University and others. Over the last couple of years, he has designed the Contemplating 400 Years of Inequality Experience–a contemplative journey to understand structural inequality. He’s a proud member of the 400 Years of Inequality Project, based at the New School. He is also the Creative Director at the NYC Healing Collective, a community initiative amplifying people and insights at the intersection of healing, wellness and societal transformation.

Spiritual Teacher Thomas Hübl & Contemplative Scholar Practitioner Dr. Angel Acosta

We continued The Garrison Institute Forum on Social Justice with a conversation between Thomas Hübl, spiritual teacher and author, and Dr. Angel Acosta, contemplative scholar-practitioner, on collective trauma and healing in a fractured world. These interactive Forum sessions aim to hold space for generative conversations around how contemplative-based approaches can nurture and support the work of social justice.

Dr. Dan Siegel and Dr. Angel Acosta in Conversation

This conversation was hosted by Dr. Dan Siegel during a one of his Personal Experience, Planetary Pandemic PEPP MWe Talks, where he explores the science of the mind, the practice of presence, and the practical applications of Interpersonal Neurobiology to constructively deal with uncertainty and cultivate resilience in our inner and relational lives. This discussion explores Dr. Acosta's research into healing-centered education and his thoughts on racial and structural inequality.

Restorative & Healing-Centered Education: Supporting a Paradigm Shift with Dr. Angel Acosta

This conversation was facilitated by Debrah Eden Tull for the Mindfulness and Meditation Summit, a free online event where you can return to joy, foster courage and share compassion through the power of mindful awareness. 

Contemplating 400 Years of Inequality

* This video includes historical images of violence and injustice which may be challenging for some viewers.* 

Join us for a webinar exploring the use of a powerful tool for contemplating the last 400 years of U.S. history. Angel Acosta will discuss how using a 4ft x 20ft timeline as a contemplative learning tool supports participants with deepening their understanding of entrenched racial and socio-economic inequality in the United States. With the aim of commemorating the year 1619--marking the arrival of enslaved Africans to U.S. shores--the 400 Years of Inequality National Organizing Committee has created a timeline for all of us to use to dive into our past. Angel will share how combining contemplative-based practices with the exploration of the timeline has helped to guide communities in re-imagining how we can both transcend implicit bias and develop a more compassionate society. This webinar will give participants access to the instructions for printing the timeline and resources for integrating it into educational settings.

DoTS 9 - Angel Acosta - Collective Healing: Facing 400 Years of Structural Inequality

The Dialogues on Transforming Society & Self (DoTS) hosted by Otto Scharmer are monthly interactive online talks in the context of societal transformation.

With a variety of guests, stories and breakout sessions, these Dialogues provide a space for coming together and sensing into inspiring examples of societal renewal.