Howard Journal of Communications

Spiritual Resilience and Mindfulness during the Socio-political Turbulence

An Howard Journal of Communications Special Issue of “Spiritual Resilience and Mindfulness during the Socio-political Turbulence” 

With the Trump 2.0 era starting with massive federal jobs cut offs, DEI funds termination in

higher institutions, and new ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) policy to

raid churches and schools, marginalized groups face renewed threats: Asian Americans

encounter resurgent anti-Asian hate; Black Americans navigate racialized policing and

discrimination; Muslim and Arab Americans fear surveillance and travel bans; and Latinx

communities resist deportations and environmental racism.

This special issue aims to centering spiritual resistance, not just as personal solace but as a

political and communal survival strategy. The authors are expected to discuss culturally grounded coping tools, historical frameworks linking spirituality and justice, and a network for ongoing sacred resistance. This special issue elevates marginalized voices while modeling how spiritual dialogue can transform oppression into empowerment.

The editor of this special issue of the Howard Journal of Communications would like to invite scholars to explore the following themes or other related issues to spirituality and mindfulness in the time of crisis:  

·      Spirituality as Resistance, Survival, and Collective Care

-Sacred Resistance as Communal Infrastructure (i.e., Black liberation theology and contemporary organizing against racialized policing; church-based sanctuary movements under intensified ICE raids; spiritual spaces as harm-reduction sites for undocumented communities; Holy defiance” as a form of political communication for marginalized groups)

-Interfaith and Inter-ethnicity Coalition Building (i.e., Muslim, Christian, Buddhist, Sikh, and Jewish solidarities in resisting state surveillance; spiritual ecologies of allyship among Black, Asian American, Latinx, and immigrant communities; Interfaith storytelling and ritual as tools for de-escalation and community healing, etc.)

·      Culturally Grounded Coping Tools and Embodied Mindfulness

-       Diasporic Mind-Body Practices as Survival Strategies (Asian American meditation, qigong, yoga, chanting, or ancestral rituals as resistance; Indigenous and Native American land-based spiritual practices during environmental racism; Afro-diasporic spiritual traditions as emotional survival, etc.)

-       Trauma-Informed Mindfulness Communicated Through Community Media (i.e., TikTok/Instagram discourses of collective healing and racial trauma; Community health communication through culturally specific spiritual mentoring; Digital mutual aid networks that distribute spiritual coping resources, etc.) 

·      Marginalized Voices, Intersectionality, and Lived Experience 

-        Intersectional Spiritual Coping (i.e., Queer and trans spiritual counter-spaces during anti-LGBTQ+ policies; Disabled and chronically ill people’s use of spiritual frameworks for policy survival; Intersections of class, immigration, faith, and race in spiritual resilience, etc.)

-       Spirituality in Everyday Life Under Threat (i.e.,Parenting, caregiving, and spiritual grounding during deportation fears; Spiritual labor of teachers, nurses, and social workers impacted by DEI cutbacks; Faith-based meaning-making after losing federal jobs in Trump 2.0 restructuring, etc.)