In various wisdom traditions the heart is conceptualized as a site of liberation or enlightenment. Through reflective, imaginal, and embodied awareness, Diana guides us into a new understanding of the tantric tradition of liberation as "something that moves in the heart.” In this workshop, Diana will explore the images and practices of the heart and discuss her research in integrating spirituality in higher educational contexts.
Diana blends spirituality and the arts in her work as professor, poet and consultant. She has facilitated numerous workshops for private, corporate and educational groups that support an intuitive exploration of the self through meditation and imagination. An associate professor at the University of Waterloo, she is Associate Chair in the Department of Drama and Speech Communication. As Director of the Forge Institute trans-traditional spirituality university/college program she has developed a university course “Spiritual Development in a Diverse World: Communicating Across Differences” which she teaches at the University of Waterloo and has trained educators in the U.S. and Canada to facilitate this course.
Her publications include a book on the inner experience of the heart In the Tenderness of Stone: Liberating Consciousness Through Awakening the Heart (SterlingHouse 1998). She is co-editor of the book Spirituality, Action, and Pedagogy: Teaching from the Heart (Peter Lang, 2004) and Holistic Learning and Spirituality in Education (SUNY, 2005). Diana presented this seminar at the University of Waterloo to an audience of 23.