Matthew Immergut

Pedagogy

The most fulfilling dimension of my work is teaching.  I actually don’t consider it work, but a constantly evolving practice.  This practice has three inter-connected areas: foundational skills, the field of sociology, and social and personal transformation.  Foundational skills deals with questions about how to effectively teach skills such as research, writing and reading.  

The field of sociology is the heart of my practice.  Sociology is such an exciting, powerful, and important perspective.  Especially for students steeped in a psychologically oriented and media saturated culture, the sociological imagination proves time and again to provide a potent intellectual standpoint to question the “common sense world.”  Using both traditional means such as lectures and creative pedagogical techniques my aim is to give students a clear understanding of the “letter” as well as the “spirit” of the sociological imagination. 

Maybe I’m being idealistic, possibly naïve, but I believe that education should be transformative.  I want students to move beyond grade seeking, to learn the pleasure of learning, to integrate what they learn in class into their personal lives, and to become active and responsible citizens.  It’s a tall order and I’m constantly reflecting on how to do this, but I know from experience it’s not impossible.   

Research Interests

Environmental sociology and the Social Construction of Nature

During graduate school most of my research focused on religious environmental activism and how religious and spiritual ideas and ideals could mobilize as well as hinder efforts to protect the environment.   More recently, my research interest in environmental sociology has turned more activist as I continue to work on a variety of projects with the Sustainability Committee on campus.  

New Religious Movements and Charisma

In 2009-2010 I turned more intensely to sociology of religion to focus on charismatic authority and new religious movements.  I began working on a visual ethnography about a group of Western converts to Tibetan Buddhism under the charismatic leadership of Geshe Michael Roach and Lama Christie McNally.  I’ve been filming, interviewing and a participant-observer in this community over the past two-years, examining this multi-faceted religious reality.  I have also been tracking a select number of members that entered their first three-year, three-month and three-day silent meditation retreat in southern Arizona on December 2010.  

Contemplative Pedagogy and Meditation

Over the past few years I've joined an increasing number of scholars and teachers investigating contemplative approaches to education.   In the Spring of 2010 I began collaborating with psychology Professor Nancy Zook to assess the effects of meditation on student performance in the context of the classroom.  Related to this work, I'm also the second author of a meditation text tentatively titled Ten Stages to Unifying the Mind.  Although meant for a popular audience, the text is rigorous, detailed, and draws heavily from cognitive science and psychology.