 | Professor Arthur Stein (l) and Senior Brian Toomey
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Professor, student bond as PeacebuildersWhen Brian Toomey came to the University of Rhode Island as a freshman he thought vaguely of majoring in math. That was before he met Arthur Stein, professor of political science.
“He’s the most influential person in my life,” said Toomey who has taken at least five of Stein’s courses. Now a senior, Toomey majors in political science and philosophy and minors in economics and peace studies.
“The world works on a social level,” said Toomey. “I’m interested in social change and social justice.”
“He has a renaissance love of learning,” said Stein of his student whom he calls one of the brightest he has had in his 36 years of teaching at URI.
Both men share an interest in peace building. Stein, who joined URI in 1965, soon began introducing conflict resolution and community building courses into the curriculum. He has been a speaker and workshop leader at the International Political Psychology Association and the Parliament of the World’s Religions’ conferences around the world. At URI, he helped found the Center for Nonviolence and Peace Studies and co-facilitated the fall 2000 Honors Colloquium, which focused on peace and nonviolence.
Toomey’s interest was sparked as a teen-ager, when he was one of 60 students and 20 staff members at Camp Anytown, sponsored by the National Conference for Community and Justice. Participants came from diverse backgrounds with the goal of building community.
Last year, the professor and student decided to research and co-author a paper, not as a classroom assignment, but out of a mutual interest in studying groups that integrate contemplative practices with social involvement.
This fall, the pair delivered that paper, entitled “Towards Manifestations of Integral Consciousness: Linking Contemplative Practice and Social Commitment,” at a conference held at Ohio University. It has since been selected for publication this spring in Integrative Explorations Journal of Culture and Consciousness. Their presentation was supported with funds from the College of Arts and Sciences’ Hope and Heritage Fund, the URI Alumni Association Faculty Development Fund, and the URI Honors Program.
Toomey and Stein focused their research on two different groups — the Society of Friends (Quakers) and the ‘Engaged’ Buddhist movement headed by the Vietnamese monk Thich Nhat Hanh that are known for their continual support of social change, creative work in nonviolent practices and peace education. Both groups also have a tradition of contemplative practices such as prayer and meditation that assist personal inner development.
Stein and Toomey found a fascinating parallel between the two groups that come from such different cultural and historic backgrounds. To better understand Engaged Buddhism, Toomey spent three weeks after his sophomore year studying under Zen Master Hanh at the Plum Village monastery in the south of France. A Michael P. Metcalf Memorial Award from the Rhode Island Foundation funded his trip.
Reflecting on the professor-student collaboration, Stein said: “It has been beneficial for both of us. The pursuit of what it is to be fully human links us together. He and I are lifetime learners. I view Brian as a colleague and hope our work together continues well beyond his college years.”
By Jan Wenzel
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