Can the Communication Discipline Critically Engage with Mindfulness?

Abstract

Questions arose at the 2018 Western States Communication Association conference as to whether mindfulness is necessarily a depoliticizing trend in the communication discipline or whether a critical or radical version can be useful for scholar-activists from marginalized locations. A nuanced definition of mindfulness, one that assumes some kind of sustained mindfulness practice, is offered. The definition allows space for or even requires and expects work toward social justice. Although the discipline has been slow to study or consider mindfulness, the essays that follow here explore whether and how mindfulness can be a useful addition to the discipline.