Living Toward Justice

Sonya E. Pritzker, Associate Professor, University of Alabama, Department of Anthropology, is a linguistic and medical anthropologist, as well as a licensed practitioner of Chinese medicine. Her work focuses on the intersection of language and embodied experience in relation to culturally situated ideologies of race, class, gender, health, and selfhood. Integrating theories and methods from linguistic, psychological, and biocultural medical anthropology, her research emphasizes collaborative and interdisciplinary approaches to advance understanding of human emotion, intimacy, and physical and mental wellbeing. She is a leader in embodied social justice.

"A treasure of inspiring words, images, insights, and reflections for how we can co-create social justice in these challenging times. The creativity and community of this project both models how we can live our values to build a better world. As I read, I grew more hopeful and felt more connected. This book will be a helpful resource in courses, programs, and in our own lives." - Beth Berila, ACC, transformational coach and facilitator; Director, Gender and Women's Studies Program, St. Cloud State University "This moving book poetically chronicles how the field of embodied social justice (ESJ) is taking shape. It beautifully refuses a singular definition of the term ESJ in the same moment that it commits to detailing how and why it must be reconciled as a definitive field of theory and praxis." - Kesha Fikes, PhD, anthropologist and somatic therapist; Professor in Somatic Psychology, California Institute of Integral Studies; creator of the psycho-political praxis called Somatic Extimacy "This is not a book – it is an experience, an interactive exhibit, an experimental time capsule that has somehow translated living ideas and encounters around presence, purpose, possibility, practice and partnership such that the reading itself occurs in deeply embodied ways. It complicates what we thought we knew about 'social justice' and 'embodiment,' stripping them of singular definitions and linear thought about oppression and liberation to ground them in collective experiences of the body, heart, mind, and spirit. . . . a contribution across diverse fields that is unlike anything I've ever read." - Tessa Hicks Peterson, Professor and Assistant Vice President of Community Engagement, Pitzer College; author, Liberating the Classroom; co-editor, Practicing Liberation "Living Toward Justice is a powerful and inspiring testament to what it means to weave embodied social justice into the fabric of daily life. With insight, compassion, and vulnerability, Pritzker and her collaborators show us how our bodies are both a site of injustice and the ground for our liberation. A must-read for anyone committed to building a more just, connected, and hopeful world." - Rae Johnson, PhD, author, Embodied Social Justice and Embodied Activism