The most valuable possession is knowledge: A contemplative reading of the more-than-human world during a research trip to Aotearoa

Neoliberalism has had a profound impact not only on the funding models of higher education institutions but also on the understanding of their raison d’être (Bourdieu, 2003; Collini, 2015). Consequently, universities are increasingly performative spaces measurable in economic terms, fast paced and with little time for initiatives that do not serve the neoliberal agenda of getting students into the workforce (Jones and Ball, 2023). In contrast, the early universities were contemplative places with a very different understanding of work and leisure (Pieper, 1952). This paper is an autoethnographic investigation of encounters with the more-than-human (Abram, 1997) world experienced during a self-funded research trip to Aotearoa. I analyse first-hand experiences, or data, gathered during engagements with the natural world using the Lectio Divina method. The Lectio Divina method has its origins in ancient Greece and the contemplative practices of medieval monks in the monastic schools and early universities (Illich, 1996; Keator, 2017). It is a method of divine or contemplative reading that entails an inner-subjective awakening, a contemplation rather than the acquisition or possessing of knowledge through purely objective comprehension. I adapt this form of contemplative reading to afford me a reading of my experiences of engagements with the more-than-human during my research trip. In light of this analysis, I explore how my experiences with the more-than-human in Aotearoa granted me knowings that honour ancient understandings of scholarliness and knowledge (Illich, 1996). These knowings are discussed and analysed in the context of underpinning theory and insights from posthumanism (Braidotti, 2019) contemplative pedagogy (Flanagan and Clough, 2024) and Te Ao Māori (Hemara, 2000) as evidence in favour of a reconceptualisation or a re-membering of the university with its relationship with, and commitment to, knowledge, contemplation, scholarliness and work.