Ritual and Ceremony
ANTIOCH UNIVERSITY MCGREGGOR
IMA 680
Ritual and Ceremony
Course Description:
This course will address the spiritual, psychological, and philosophical aspects of ritual and ceremony in indigenous and contemporary Indo-European culture for groups, individuals, and societies. It will incorporate a deep theoretical and experiential understanding of ritual and ceremony. Ritual is defined here as a intentional symbolic act that corresponds to a specific physical act(s) performed with some deeper intention and purpose that involves the individual self, group, culture, or the sacred (emphasis in this course will be on the spiritual and psychological context of ritual). Emphasis will be on learning that includes, as well as transcends, the reductionist Cartesian form of analysis. The content of the course will engage an embodied participatory model of learning that potentially can honor and more fully understand ritual acts and the cultures that practice them. A level of understanding will be sought through immersion, theory, and practice that provides a thorough perspective and a way of living found in ritually motivated cultures. This course will use the participation in Bolad’s Kitchen, an indigenous-perspective training program in New Mexico to gain a participatory understanding of ritual and ceremony. Course emphasis will be on an individual’s relationship to psyche, community, the earth, ancestry, beauty and the sacred through ritual acts. Ritual and ceremony structure, core components, purpose, effects and ways to engage, create and facilitate for individuals, groups and societies will be addressed. Ritual as community and earth maintenance and ritual as healing for an individual’s psyche will both be addressed during the course of study.
Learning Objectives
Upon completion of this course, the student will be able to demonstrate:
- Theoretical and experiential comprehension and synthesis of the basic structure, core components, various purposes and effects of indigenous and contemporary Indo-European ritual and ceremony practices from a psychological, spiritual and philosophical lens.
- Ability to conceptually and/or actually engage, create, and facilitate authentic ritual and ceremony for self, individuals, groups and/or societies.
- Ability to engage inquiry and practice in a way that honors and respects the subject.
Learning Activities
Students will participate in the following activities:
- Read assigned readings.
- Reflective portfolio (including journal writings from participation in group and individual learnings, sketches, and photographs of objects created) of ritual and ceremonial theoretical/experiential learning.
- Participation in four local bay area Bolad’s Kitchen peer learning group meetings.
- Organize, create, facilitate and participate in 3 group rituals.
- Organize, create and participate in six personal individual rituals.
- Narrative self-evaluation of ritual facilitation and participation.
- Participate in 1 Bolad’s Kitchen ten-day course- participating in all theoretical and experiential ritual and ceremonial learnings during the course.
- Write 10-15 theoretical and reflective paper that synthesizes core comprehension gained from this course.
Instructor:
Susanne Fest
ILPS graduate core faculty at Antioch University: McGreggor
Academic Information:
Ed.D., Human Resource Development. Peabody College at Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee. Dissertation: Discursive Practices, Knowledge Work and Identity Productions, May 2001
M.A., Counseling Psychology, Emphasis in Marriage and Family Therapy. University of Santa Clara, California. May 1983
Graduate Studies, Clinical Psychology, University of Bochum, Germany. October 1979- January 1981
Interdisciplinary Graduate Studies: Social Sciences and Humanities. Stanford University, Palo Alto, California. August 1978- July 1979
B.A., English and Education. Bonn University, Germany, May 1979
Biographical Information:
I was born and raised in Germany and received my undergraduate education at the University of Bonn, majoring in English and Education. In order to expand my cultural experiences and to improve my English language skills I accepted a one- year scholarship for foreign exchange students at Stanford University in California. During that year, I decided to pursue a career as marriage and family counselor and obtained a master’s degree in counseling psychology at Santa Clara University. For the next fifteen years I worked as a counselor/therapist in a variety of non-profit organizational settings with marginalized populations in rural areas of the United States, such as the high desert of the Sierra Nevada and Appalachia, and with undergraduate and graduate students in institutions of higher education. I received my doctorate in human resource development from Vanderbilt University pursuing an interdisciplinary course of study. Before joining the McGregor faculty in 2003, I spent two years as research associate with the Institute for Community Research in Hartford, Connecticut, where I worked with multi-disciplinary teams of researchers on federally funded educational intervention studies.
Evaluation:
Reflection portfolio that includes individual and group theoretical and group learnings.
Narrative self-evaluation of ritual facilitation and individual rituals.
Evidence of participation in 3 Bolad’s Kitchen ten-week courses.
Evidence in Organization and
8-12 page theoretical and reflective paper that synthesizes core comprehension gained from this course.
Time Period: Fall 2010
Credit Assignment: 3
Credit Hours:
Reading assignments: 15 hours
Bolad’s Kitchen participation: 53 hours
Individual and group ritual participation: 13 hours
Written assignments: 19 hours
Group participation: 7 hours
Narrative self-evaluation: 1 hour
Total credit hours: 108
Bibliography
Some, M. (1993). Ritual: Power, healing, and community. New York: Penguin Compass.
Prechtel, M. (2004). Long life, Honey in the Heart. Berkeley, CA: North Atlantic Books.
Ritual articles TBA
Review of notes from organizational ritual coaching training or actual training proof