Human Dignity: Practices, Discourses, and Transformations

Dignity and humiliation are at the root of countless urgent issues today. This edited book provides a multifaceted discussion of dignity from diverse social, cultural, religious, legal, educational, psychological, and political perspectives. It is written as a special tribute to Dr. Evelin Lindner, a global scholar and researcher nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2015, 2016, and 2017.

Using the study of dignity and humiliation as a common foundation, this book examines some of the most challenging topics of our time, including human rights, mass incarceration, immigration, education, prisoner rehabilitation, peace advocacy, therapeutic jurisprudence, social justice, the preservation of indigenous wisdom, environmental destruction, and effective community advocacy. All of the contributing authors were inspired by the remarkable efforts of Evelin Lindner, the founding president of Human Dignity and Humiliation Studies (HumanDHS), a transdisciplinary global community dedicated to ending cycles of humiliation and cultivating dignity in all relationships.

Readers will learn that Evelin Lindner is the rarest of visionary leaders. She is a global social scientist, a Da Vinci of academic inquiry, transformative thought, and compassionate activism. Her path has led her beyond the tragedy of her family’s forced displacement during WWII to the highest levels of scholarship.

One of the best ways to appreciate Evelin Lindner’s commitment to humanity is by meeting those who are inspired and energized by her message. The authors in this book represent a growing fellowship of those who share Evelin Lindner’s commitment to encouraging the equal dignity of all people while restoring the health of our fragile planet.

 

Chipamong Chowdhury is a 2017-2018 Beyond the Bars Fellow at Columbia University's Center for Justice. He is a member of the Human Dignity and Humiliation Studies (HumanDHS) Global Core Team and co-coordinator of the HumanDHS World Gender Relations for Equal Dignity (WGenderRED) project. He is a Theravada Buddhist monk, independent researcher, interpreter, and mobile teacher of relational mindfulness. He is a dharma teacher at the Chautauqua Institute in New York and spiritual leader at the Rainforest Foundation in the U.S. His research primarily focuses on Theravada/contemporary Buddhism-Buddhist Cinema, Buddhism and politics/nationalism, sacred biography, monastic migration, and Buddhist diaspora. His essays and reviews have appeared in the Harvard Divinity Bulletin, the Journal of Contemporary Buddhism, Buddhist Studies Reviews, Studies in Religion, the Journal of Religion and Popular Culture, and the Fair Observer, among other publications. He was a visiting scholar at Tallinn University and University of Tartu Estonia. He holds two Master degrees in Religious/Buddhist studies and South Asian studies/anthropology from Naropa University and University of Toronto. Defining himself as a digital/global citizen he travels extensively in North America, Europe, and Asia, teaching "active love" and "social meditation." Currently, he is working on a children's book, a Buddhist graphic novel.

Michael Britton, Ed.D., is a psychologist and retired therapist who has done research on parental influences that help children grow up to do well in love; interview research with retired high level military on the complex issues of moral responsibility involved in the planning and command of the nuclear weapons build-up in the Cold War; and the ways in which traditional, modern, and post-modern architecture express changing cultural feelings for the era we live in, the era we're leaving behind, and the era we hope to be creating. He co-established the New York Human Dignity and Humiliation Studies (HumanDHS) group, Dignity Now NYC, with Janet Gerson, Judit Révész, Gaby Saab, and Chipamong Chowdhury. He is on the Board of Directors for the HumanDHS network and is a member of its Global Core Team.

Linda M. Hartling, Ph.D., is the Director of Human Dignity and Humiliation Studies (HumanDHS) and is part of a global leadership team facilitating affiliated projects, including the World Dignity University initiative and Dignity Press. Dr. Hartling is the past Associate Director of the Jean Baker Miller Training Institute (JBMTI), part of the Wellesley Centers for Women (WCW) at Wellesley College in Massachusetts. She holds a doctoral degree in clinical/community psychology and has published papers on Relational-Cultural Theory, workplace practices, resilience, substance abuse prevention, humiliation, and is the co-editor of The Complexity of Connection: Writings from the Jean Baker Miller Training Institute at the Stone Center. Dr. Hartling is the author of the Humiliation Inventory, the first scale to assess the internal experience of humiliation. The scale has been translated into Italian, French, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Russian, and Norwegian (in progress) and continues to be used for research around the world. In addition, Dr. Hartling is the recipient of the 2010 Research Award presented by the Association for Creativity in Counseling, American Counseling Association, and the 2015 HumanDHS Lifetime Achievement Award.