A panel of experts from the Brown University School of Public Health, the Rhode Island Department of Health, and the Alpert Medical School will provide a range of disciplinary and professional perspectives on the ongoing coronavirus outbreak, including those with an understanding of the local context where the outbreak is currently concentrated and those in Rhode Island responsible for mounting a local response. Discussion will follow with opportunities to ask questions and share thoughts and concerns. All are welcome!

Moderators:

Mark Lurie, Associate Professor of Epidemiology
Angie Bengtson, Assistant Professor of Epidemiology

Panelists:

Katherine Mason, Vartan Gregorian Assistant Professor of Anthropology
Jun Tao, Assistant Professor of Medicine
Vanessa Britto, Executive Director of Health and Wellness, Assistant Professor of Medicine
Philip Chan, Associate Professor of Medicine; Consultant Medical Director, RI Dept of Health

If you can’t make it to the School, join the webcast !

Please join Brown Contemplative Studies for a lecture by Professor Justin McDaniel on “Living Deliberately Through Existential Despair: New Approaches to Embodied Pedagogy in Religious Studies,” Wednesday, February 12th, from 6 - 7:30 pm in Friedman Hall, Rm.101.  This event is free and open to the public.  

Monasticism and asceticism appear to be practices that go against evolution and natural human instinct to seek pleasure, procreate, and consume calories. Why would millions of people in nearly every religious tradition for as far back in history as we have evidence undertake precepts that restrict food and intoxicant intake, often promote or demand celibacy, and demand harsh physical austerities? Nearly every culture has invented some type of ascetic and/or monastic practice, but we are unclear about the motivating forces behind this development and continued practice. In order to answer these questions, I developed two controversial courses – “Living Deliberately” – a course that demands students undertake a month-long vow of silence, food, technology, and dress restrictions, waking up at 5 am every day, and meditative exercises; as well as “Existential Despair” – a course that requires students to come to an eight hour class session once a week (4 pm-midnight) and think about sadness and loneliness through intense reading and discussion. These courses have led to much reflection about the value of asceticism and contemplation as part of university education. This talk will describe these courses and open up a discussion on embodiment and pedagogy in the modern academy.

Justin McDaniel is a professor of Buddhist Studies at the University of Pennsylvania. He earned his PhD from Harvard’s Department of Sanskrit and Indian Studies in 2003. His research foci include Lao, Thai, Pali and Sanskrit literature, art and architecture, and manuscript studies. His first book, Gathering Leaves and Lifting Words, won the Harry Benda Prize. His second book, The Lovelorn Ghost and the Magic Monk, won the Kahin Prize. His most recent book, Architects of Buddhist Leisure, examines “disengaged Buddhist” activities and spaces across Asia. He has received grants from the NEH, Mellon, Rockefeller, Fulbright, PACRIM, Luce, the SSRC, among others. He is the co-editor of the journals: Buddhism Compass, Journal of Lao Studies, and Associate Editor of the Journal of Asian Studies. He has won teaching and advising awards at Harvard U, Ohio U, the University of California, and the Ludwig Prize for Teaching at Penn. In 2012 he was named a Guggenheim Fellow and in 2014 a fellow of Kyoto University’s Center for Southeast Asian Studies. His forthcoming work includes edited books on Thai Manuscripts, Buddhist Biographies, Monasticism and Contemplation, and Buddhist ritual.

Assistant Professor Christian Nixon will present “Identification and Evaluation of Novel Malaria Anti-gametocyte Transmission Blocking Vaccine Candidate Antigens”.  This lecture is part of the 2020 Pathobiology Graduate Program Spring Seminar Series and all are welcome.