ABSTRACT
This chapter defines embodiment, and discusses feminist theories of body knowledge and cultural disembodiment. It also explores the value of embodied learning for more mindful anti-oppression pedagogy. Feminist theory and pedagogy have established two key tenets that lay the foundation for the embodied learning. First, the body itself is a site of knowledge, and second, people often have to counteract the powerful disembodiment that pervades Western culture in order to tap into that knowledge. The chapter examines each of these tenets in turn and then discusses how embodiment informs more mindful anti-oppression work. Integrating mindfulness with anti-oppression pedagogy not only recognizes the body as a site of experience and knowledge, it also validates the body's capacity to transform oppressive experience. Mindfulness practices are critical forms of self-support and empowerment precisely because people can turn to them in moments of danger.
