This proposal understands “writing vulnerability”—
that constant state of struggle between managing the demands of everyday life with those of the writing process—as endemic to all writing and suggests that contemplative practices are one way to resist this precarity and promote political, personal, and academic well-being. Students come to our classes with material vulnerabilities precipitated by lack of economic resources, with political vulnerabilities if they belong to an immigrant community or identify as people of color, or with psychic vulnerabilities from years of being told they were not “college material”—to name only a few. While meditation, timed writing, deep listening and the like will not erase these precarities, they can offer students a way to acknowledge them, explore their impacts, and effectively respond. By addressing this struggle directly, the presentation offers an approach to contemplative pedagogical practices that begins to account for writing's many vulnerabilities.