Name: The Memory Body: Where Awe, Symbolism, and the Body Meet in the Work of Healing-Centered Education
Start: 2026-10-07T09:00:00-0400
End: 2026-10-07T10:00:00-0400

The Memory Body: Where Awe, Symbolism, and the Body Meet in the Work of Healing-Centered Education

Wednesday October 7, 2026 9:00am - 10:00am EDT

Lecture Hall

What if images don't just represent memory? What if the body remembers through them?
This session introduces the concept of the "memory body": the proposition that visual symbols encountered in landscapes, natural environments, and daily life activate not only cognitive memory but somatic, emotional, and energetic memory and that this insight has direct implications for how we understand and sustain the well-being of educators and caregivers.

The presentation synthesizes two bodies of work previously presented at IVLA 2025: a self-study of emblematic symbolism using a Symbolic Field Guide methodology rooted in awe, nature-based encounter, and reflective journaling; and mixed-methods research on energy healing's impact on emotional resilience and nervous system regulation in caregiving professionals. Across both studies, an identical transformation arc emerged — Curiosity → Sensation → Reflection → Clarity → Renewal — revealing that visual encounter and embodied practice share the same living rhythm of meaning-making.

Grounded in scholarship on awe (Keltner, 2023), archetype (Campbell, 1949), and nature symbolism (Andrews, 1993/2021), and informed by participant narratives describing warmth, imagery, emotional release, and somatic recalibration, this session argues that visual literacy must expand to include the body as a site of memory rooted in place. A feather found on a trail, light through trees, a recurring pattern in a landscape. These are mnemonic anchors carrying forward personal narrative and embodied knowledge that the body knows before the mind names.

From this ground, the session pivots to practice, introducing the emerging shape of a healing-centered professional development framework for educators integrating visual journaling, symbolic encounter, awe practices, and somatic grounding. Participants engage in a brief dual-lens exercise (visual analysis + somatic practices) using a prototype reflection prompt, experiencing the "memory body" in real time and leaving with a tool they can adapt for their own practice.

Speakers

Dr. Karen F. Tardrew

Professor, Chair of Learning Sciences in Education, National Louis University

Dr. Karen F. Tardrew is a tenured Professor and Chair of Learning Sciences in Education at National Louis University, where she has served for over 33 years as a scholar, leader, and innovator in educator development. Her teaching and research explore the intersections of visual... Read More →

Wednesday October 7, 2026 9:00am - 10:00am EDT
Lecture Hall

Campfire

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IVLA 2026 Charleston

Dr. Karen F. Tardrew

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IVLA 2026 Charleston

Dr. Karen F. Tardrew

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