Free your attention

Do you feel so busy and distracted that you likely won’t finish reading this paragraph? Join us for an evening to explore meditation and other contemplative practices with psychologist Nicholas Van Dam, meditation teacher Jess Huon, and musician Matthias Schack-Arnott. We’ll bust some myths (stop trying to empty your mind!); we’ll offer some cautions (should you go on that 10 day retreat?) and we’ll explore whether these practices can help you to feel more free to focus on and attend to what really matters to you. This event is presented in partnership with the University of Melbourne’s Contemplative Studies Centre.

Nicholas Van Dam

Speaker

Nicholas Van Dam is the inaugural director of the Contemplative Studies Centre and an associate professor in the School of Psychological Sciences at the University of Melbourne. Nicholas is a highly regarded global leader in contemplative research and practice. His research interests include the ways that meditation and mindfulness practices can support wellbeing, as well as improved understandings and treatments of high-prevalence psychiatric disorders. He combines his extensive academic expertise in contemplative practice with an interest in the complex ethical, social and systemic issues associated with it. His work has been published in journals such as The Journal of Neuroscience and Perspectives on Psychological Science.

Nicholas can be found on twitter at @ntvandam

The Contemplative Studies Centre, University of Melbourne

The Contemplative Studies Centre at the University of Melbourne aims to transform lives through cutting-edge research and education on mindfulness, meditation and contemplative practices. The Centre promotes individual and community wellbeing through interdisciplinary collaboration, fostering a deeper understanding and integration of these practices into everyday life.

Jess Huon

Speaker

Jess Huon is a writer (The Dark Wet, Giramondo publishing) and an authorised Dharma teacher. Her meditation training has taken place in Buddhist monastic settings, inter-faith contexts and in extended periods of solitary practice. Her lineage crosses the Insight Tradition and Open Dharma and has been empowered by the feminine Tantric Tradition. She teaches internationally in a variety of different contexts and holds a Bachelor of Creative Arts (VCA), and a postgraduate degree in Therapeutic Arts Practice (RMIT).

Jess can be found on instagram at @jesshuon

Matthias Schack-Arnott

Artist

Matthias Schack-Arnott is an Australian musician, composer and percussionist, whose works spans live performance, large-scale installation and broad cross-disciplinary collaborations in dance, film and theatre. Matthias’s works have been presented by major festivals and contemporary art spaces including the Venice Biennale, Brighton Festival (UK), Noordezon Festival (The Netherlands), Sydney Festival, RISING Festival (Melbourne), Supersense, Arts House (Melbourne), The Unconformity (Tasmania), and La Comete (France). As a collaborator, interpreter and improviser, Matthias has worked with many leading musicians and choreographers such as Steve Reich, Claire Chase, Unsuk Chin, Antony Hamilton and Lucy Guerin. He is the winner of four Australian Art Music Awards, the Sidney Myer Creative Fellowship, the Melbourne Prize for Music, MTNow Prize (Rotterdam) and three Green Room Awards.

Matthias can be found on instagram at @schackarnott

Brigid Hains

Host

Brigid Hains is the editorial director of Aeon Media. An environmental historian by training, she is driven by a deep curiosity about the natural and human worlds. The Sophia Club is a chance for Brigid to express her love of beauty and the arts, and to share the heartfelt dimensions of her intellectual life.