Section 9: TRACK 1
Bodies Count: Embodiment and the Effects of Bodily Activity
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Track 1: Bodies Count: Embodiment and the Effects of Bodily Activity
Obstacles to realization of our embodiment occur in racialized, speciesed, gendered, abled, and sexually-oriented bodies with historical, ethical, spiritual, and practical implications for whose bodies are valued. Play, dance, body-centered practices, and Theatre of the Oppressed techniques for social justice through rallies and civil disobedience can be empowering and transformational.
Track Heads
Beth Johnson
Minister, Palomar Unitarian Universalist Fellowship
Rev. Dr. Beth Johnson has served the Palomar Unitarian Universalist Fellowship in Vista, California since 2004. Rev. Johnson received her Master of Divinity from Claremont School of Theology in 2002 and a Doctor of Ministry degree in 2007 at Claremont School of Theology with an emphasis in ecofeminist process thought and animal rights. Her work in parish ministry is grounded in the belief that religious community at its best offers the space for individuals to embody robust spiritual lives grounded in radical love and interconnectedness, which reveals our unique call in healing the world, and for the community to be a place of resistance, resilience, transformation, and profound joy and love in the face injustice and current threats to the planet and all beings.
Rev. Johnson has a particular interest in the aesthetics of worship, crafting collaborative contemporary worship that incorporates embodied practices connecting heart, mind, and body to foster spiritual depth, love, joy, and transformational social justice. Knowing that everything is connected and everything is at stake, Rev. Johnson’s perspective is that of intersectional justice. She works in the area of immigration and racial justice, worker justice, economic and environmental justice, climate action, and animal rights. She is co-president of the San Diego Interfaith Center for Worker Justice, and serves on the boards of the Unitarian Universalist Refugee and Immigrant Services and Education, and the Unitarian Universalist Animal Ministry. Further service to Unitarian Universalism includes: UU Food Justice Ministry and the UU Environmental Justice Collaboratory, a group committed to elevating environmental and climate justice within the UUA. A mystic and sacred activist, she is deeply influenced by David Ray Griffin, eco-philosophers, Joanna Macy and Vandana Shiva, the Hindu practice of kirtan, and she loves the world passionately.
Suggested Resources
Links to Section-related books and media for pre-conference preparation include:
