2022 Larry Morris Scholarship Award recipients
This year we were able to award a full prize scholarship of $2,500 and a 2nd place prize scholarship of $1,250 to two outstanding UNM graduate students to support their research and writing.
TIMOTHY VANDIVER is a PhD student studying developmental psychology in UNM’s Department of Psychology. Vandiver also holds a B.S. degree in Psychology from UNM, graduating summa cum laude. While pursuing his PhD, Vandiver has also been a rare outside admit into MFA writing courses at the university. Tim’s current project is a narrative nonfiction book that combines memoir with Tim’s psychological research interests, in conjunction with formal research papers that he intends to publish in academic journals.
Vandiver’s research explores transformational meditative experiences, positing that they are more than a derangement of the senses or a product of brain chemistry that is not reflective of outside reality. Tim’s academic work uses both empirical research into brain function and the personal study of changes in a high-level practitioner of meditative practice’s consciousness over time, based on his own experience as a Vipassana meditation practitioner. Tim’s current book project uses his own story (involving, among other things, living in rural Alaska) to help him, as he states, “[interpret] meditative experiences in light of [his] own psychology and background” and give readers an access point to his understanding of it.
Vandiver was selected for the $2,500 Larry Morris Memorial Scholarship based on his outstanding academic record, the scope and depth of his project, and the potential it holds not only for both creative mystical literature and psychological research on consciousness but also for its potential to impact concepts and practices of 21st century spirituality through new ways of understanding meditation, as well as experiences of mystical unity and the concept of that unity, in turn, as a shaping and modulating factor of human consciousness. It takes great spiritual courage and vision to explore, scientifically research, and present one’s own inner life with fresh insight and theoretical models. It also takes great intellect to find correlates in religious mystical traditions and literature, as well as in consciousness research, psychology, pain management, and the everyday human struggle. Vandiver’s work contributes to a new paradigm in consciousness research methodology. Moreover, it holds the opportunity to simply support the individual reader in their personal struggles to heal, adapt, and live more fully by staying with a spiritual practice that includes meditation.
VERA CLYNE is an MFA student studying Creative Nonfiction in UNM’s Department of English Language and Literature. She holds a B.S. degree in Psychology with a minor in Philosophy and a focus in Women’s Studies from the University of Pittsburgh. As her MFA dissertation project, Vera is a writing a book-length memoir that she plans to publish. The work is focused on Vera’s experience with the death of her eldest daughter, who was diagnosed with a fatal birth defect during her pregnancy and passed away soon after being born. The book addresses both Vera’s grief with her loss and the sense of powerlessness she felt in dealing with human institutions. Describes Clyne, “The memoir deeply explores themes of faith, betrayal and recovery and becomes something of a meditation on spirit.”
Based on the strength, originality, and significance of Clyne’s proposal, the Larry Morris Memorial Scholarship board decided to expand the funding this year to include a $1,250 2nd place award for Vera to help pay tuition fees and support the completion of her book. Clyne’s project stands out as an original spiritual creative work that is particularly timely in 2022 as we move through another year of the coronavirus pandemic, when so many have lost their “voice” in medical crises and when pregnancy and birth carry new risks in a time of collective grief and struggle for control. Details Clyne about process she undertook to find healing and gain understanding, “I would describe what I was doing as gutting and rebuilding my spiritual foundation by re-evaluating my relationship with both family and spirit.” As a culture, in this era we all risk the very confusion Clyne experienced in sorting through our future post-pandemic intergenerational trauma. Vera’s memoir holds potential for a deepening understanding of the spiritual process of healing in the 21st century that likely involves a learning and unlearning of spiritual practices and mythologies from a broader global base than in previous centuries as we strive to rebuild both collective and individual spiritual foundations relevant to humanity's future.