Alka Arora, Associate Professor, Women's Spirituality, Speaks at 2023 Bioneers Conference
Professor Arora focused her talk on the interconnected suffering of all genders under patriarchy and the power of witnessing others’ gender stories
Alka Arora, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Women’s Spirituality at CIIS’ School of Consciousness and Transformation, recently spoke at the annual Bioneers Conference on April 6th and 7th in Berkeley, CA. In collaboration with Gender Equity and Reconciliation International (GERI) founders Dr. William Keepin and Rev. Cynthia Brix, Dr. Arora co-led a gender healing workshop and delivered a presentation titled “Gender Healing and the Next Wave of Feminism.”
Professor Arora focused her talk on the interconnected suffering of all genders under patriarchy and the power of witnessing others’ gender stories. She interwove personal reflections on her work as a GERI facilitator with her scholarship on the next wave of feminism, which she describes as restorative, expansive, ecological, and creative. The Bioneers Conference is a national event, drawing academics and social and scientific innovators from around the nation (and the globe) who focus their research on the world’s most pressing environmental and social challenges.
Alka Arora, Ph.D. has a doctorate in Women Studies from the University of Washington and a bachelor’s degree in Mathematics from the University of Southern California. She has been teaching in the Women’s Spirituality program at CIIS since 2011. She also served as the department chair from 2012-2016, during which time she developed the M.A. program in Women, Gender, Spirituality, and Social Justice.
Dr. Arora’s scholarship is focused on three interrelated areas of inquiry: feminist spiritual activism, vegan ecofeminism, and transformative pedagogy and leadership. She uses what she calls an integral feminist pedagogy in her teaching, inviting students to see social justice work as a form of sacred praxis. She also advocates for nonhuman animal lives in her teaching and research, and has been a committed vegan since 2013. Her courses at CIIS include “Spiritual Activism,” “Animal Ethics,” “Conscious Leadership Among Women,” and “Teaching to Transform: Liberatory Feminist Pedagogies.”