Abstract
Academics move a lot. In this autoethnographic essay, I explore aspects of mobility, rootedness, mindfulness, and learning though my own story of leaving a place I loved for a new place I was drawn to, a place where I have begun the long and uncertain process of building new relationships of attachment. We lead mobile lives, even as we learn to appreciate the benefits of staying put to both people and land. Between rootedness and mobility lives a rich tension, termed “place-based transience”. What do the experience of place and transience imply for our work as academics, as mindful human beings in the process of learning and becoming? The essay probes this question and concludes with a series of haiku—as an example of a particular “practice of place” I’ve found helpful for connecting me to my new homeplace, even as I question whether I’ll stick around.
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M. Mueller and D. Greenwood, Editors for Special Issue on Ecological Mindfulness and Cross-Hybrid Learning.
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Greenwood, D.A. Place, mobility, and faculty life: mindfulness and learning through change. Cult Stud of Sci Educ 10, 5–16 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11422-014-9633-9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11422-014-9633-9