Vivian Chavez - Cultural Humility, Moving, & Breathing Awareness

Tuesday, July 31st 2012, 7:00pm

Tuesday Night Talks at Pacific School of Religion

1798 Scenic Avenue, Berkeley, CA 94709

Reception 7 PM, Lecture 7:30 PM

Free and open to the public

Cultural humility refers to a lifelong commitment to self-reflection, redressing power imbalances, and developing and maintaining mutually respectful dynamic partnerships based on mutual trust.  From a cultural humility perspective, the most serious barrier to culturally relevant teaching and leadership development is not a lack of knowledge of the details of any given cultural orientation but structural and interpersonal relationship issues including the failure to develop a respectful attitude toward diverse points of view.  This event will introduce the concept of cultural humility and through movement & breathing awareness engage with what it means.  The goal is to create a safe space for dialogue and practice.  Attention will be paid to the body/mind connection as an important nexus for diversity teaching & learning. Professional training institutions, community organizations, and schools of many disciplines have used the principles of cultural humility in their work to influence the content of interpersonal relationship and systems change.  

Vivian Chavez, Dr.P.H., M.P.H., is an Associate Professor in the Department of Health Education at San Francisco State University. Her scholarship is partially informed by her standpoint as a woman of color and concerns the mind/body split characteristic of higher education. Doctor Chavez is a community organizer with extensive media advocacy and global health experience. She has traveled extensively and her courses infuse an international dimension to health promotion and disease prevention. Most recently she presented at the Medical Education for the 21 Century Conference on Teaching Health Equity in Havana, Cuba. She is coeditor of a leading textbook Prevention is Primary: Community Strategies for Wellbeing and is a registered yoga teacher. Her courses focus on solutions, resiliency and common values. With a passion for innovative pedagogy, Vivian teaches non-violence, embodied leadership and creative expression. Most recently she used a Community Based Participatory Research methodology to produce the book Drop That Knowledge: Youth Radio, Learning and Culture with Elizabeth Soep. During Summer Session 2012, she is teaching Community Organizing for Health & Social Justice.