# Event Details - **Event Name**: Spirituality, Health and Wellbeing: ‘Contemplative Radicals’ - **Event Start and End Date**: Thu, 05 Feb, 2026 at 10:30 am – Thu, 05 Feb, 2026 at 12:00 pm - **Event Description**: Dr Ori Mautner discusses how left-wing Israeli ‘Engaged Dharma’ activists integrate ethical self-care and fraught political action.About this EventJoin us for this hybrid seminar organised by the Spirituality, Health and Wellbeing research theme.SpeakerDr Ori Mautner is a Junior Research Fellow at Christ's College, University of Cambridge. His research examines the practice of insight meditation (vipassanā)— contemplative and ascetic techniques that originate in Theravāda Buddhism—by two groups of Israeli Jews operating in Israel and the occupied West Bank.AbstractAnthropologists have critiqued the growing focus on ethics—often emphasizing self-care and self-formation—as potentially depoliticizing. Engaged Dharma Israel (EDI), a radical-left Israeli activist group, raises similar concerns. EDI combines Buddhist-inspired meditative self-care with anti-occupation activism in solidarity with Palestinians, involving fraught and often risky encounters with Israeli settlers and the military. Responding to calls to integrate the anthropologies of ethics and politics, I propose tracing how people themselves navigate this relationship, whether or not they name it as such.EDI upholds ethical self-care practices—awareness, reflection, cultivating friendliness—while resisting Israel’s policies toward West Bank Palestinians. Positioned between Dharma practitioners focused on self-care and radical-left activists focused on political opposition, members view self-fashioning and resistance as complementary, mutually reinforcing forms of care. They see each as insufficiently attuned to the wellbeing of either self or others without the other. I illustrate this through Nimrod, an everyday exemplar of EDI’s approach, and briefly note other—orthodox-Jewish and nationalist—Israeli practitioners of Buddhist-derived meditation to suggest comparisons of how people variously conceptualize and enact relations or separations between self-care and political action.The conclusion considers ethnographic critiques of EDI’s ‘politics’, viewed by some as overly humanitarian and insufficiently democratic to address ongoing, unprecedented crises.The Zoom link will be circulated closer to the event. If you have any access requirements, please get in touch with us at imh.events@durham.ac.uk.Please note that this event is free to attend.This event is hosted by the Spirituality, Health and Wellbeing research theme of the Institute for Medical Humanities, led by Loretta Lou, Sitna Quiroz, Adam Powell, Fran Cettl, and Arya Thampuran. - **Event URL**: https://allevents.in/durham/spirituality-health-and-wellbeing-‘contemplative-radicals’/100001978380221499 - **Event Categories**: health-wellness, meditation, workshops - **Interested Audience**: - total_interested_count: 0 ## Ticket Details - **Ticket Price Range**: min: 0, max: 0, currency: GBP ## Event venue details - **city**: Durham - **state**: EN - **country**: United Kingdom - **location**: Institute for Medical Humanities • Durham University - **lat**: 54.7676493 - **long**: -1.5709339 - **full address**: Institute for Medical Humanities • Durham University, Confluence Building, Durham, United Kingdom ## Event gallery - **Alt text**: Spirituality, Health and Wellbeing: ‘Contemplative Radicals’ - **Image URL**: https://cdn-az.allevents.in/events7/banners/26305710aaf073239f8f8598cbc0be4029b259f11138d75d6df058c695189206-rimg-w1200-h900-dc171413-gmir.jpg?v=1766743323 ## FAQs - **Q**: When and where is Spirituality, Health and Wellbeing: ‘Contemplative Radicals’ being held? - **A:** Spirituality, Health and Wellbeing: ‘Contemplative Radicals’ takes place on Thu, 05 Feb, 2026 at 10:30 am to Thu, 05 Feb, 2026 at 12:00 pm at Institute for Medical Humanities • Durham University, Confluence Building, Durham, United Kingdom. - **Q**: Who is organizing Spirituality, Health and Wellbeing: ‘Contemplative Radicals’? - **A:** Spirituality, Health and Wellbeing: ‘Contemplative Radicals’ is organized by Institute for Medical Humanities. - **Q**: Who is this event for? Is it right for me? - **A:** Spirituality, Health and Wellbeing: ‘Contemplative Radicals’ is ideal for learners, working professionals, and skill-builders looking to gain hands-on knowledge and practical expertise in a focused, interactive setting. Whether you're a first-time attendee or a longtime enthusiast in Durham, this event is thoughtfully curated to deliver a standout experience worth every moment. 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