Researcher
My research questions center around how contemplative experiences help us live meaningful lives. By "contemplative experiences," I mean people, places, and practices that help us to "be" instead of "do." I believe that these experiences are critical for human and planetary flourishing, and that our present culture too often convinces us otherwise, particularly through messages like busy is normal, happiness can be bought, and we aren't good enough (yet).
While I am just beginning my journey as a researcher, I have a few opinions regarding what I can know and how I can know it. First, I'm naturally qualitative in my approach to understanding. Second, I believe that the subjective, immaterial, messy lives of humans is real and worthy of study. And third, I value (and acknowledge) my own experiences as an interpretive lens. Right now, I'm particularly drawn to methods like phenomenology and autoethnography, which I feel honor and allow for the complexity of influences and assumptions.