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Mar 5, 2026
Complementarity and Integration
Utopian Individual and Collective Transformation
Summary
Today we meet EWP adjunct faculty Suryamayi Aswini Clarence-Smith to explore her work in Utopian studies, shaped by her upbringing in Auroville and her roots in Integral Yoga. We discuss integral approaches to education and her CIIS course, Prefiguring Utopia, which asks what a utopian learning experience might look like. We discuss the limits of rational teleology in utopian praxis and the importance of integral frameworks, like the Integral Yoga of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, that emphasize the complementarity of multiple ways of knowing, harmonizing the planes and parts of the self, necessary to support collective transformation. The conversation also explores the scholar-practitioner as a site of transformation, and she shares a little about her course at CIIS, Awareness Through the Body, which guides students in exploring embodiment and contemplation, experimenting with their physical and psychic constitution, and we discuss this as a practice of cultivating conditions for transformative experiences grounded in revolutionary, evolutionary, and utopian ideals.
Book - Prefiguring Utopia: The Auroville Experiment
Book Talk - here
Dr. Suryamayi Clarence-Smith is an award-winning scholar, educator and facilitator based in Auroville, India, the largest intentional community in the world. Suryamayi holds a PhD in International Development from the University of Sussex, and a BA from the University of California, Berkeley; she is currently affiliated with the Sri Aurobindo International Institute for Educational Research (SAIIER) in Auroville. Her research on utopian and prefigurative practice has been published by leading editors and publishers in the field, notably in the Ralahine Utopian Studies series (Peter Lang), the Alternatives to Capitalism in the 21st century series (Bristol University Press), and the Antipode Book Series (Wiley). Dedicated to sharing the outcomes of her research to various audiences, she lectures internationally in both academic and activist settings.
The EWP Podcast credits
- Connect with EWP: Website • Youtube • Facebook
- Hosted by Stephen Julich (EWP Core Faculty) and Jonathan Kay (EWP Phd, Adjunct Faculty)
- Produced by: Stephen Julich and Jonathan Kay
- Edited and Mixed by: Jonathan Kay
- Music: Mosaic, by Monsoon on the album Mandala
- Introduction Voiceover: Roche Wadehra
Your Host
Stephen Julich and Jonathan Kay
Stephen Julich has worked as an adjunct instructor in History and Anthropology at the City College of New York, as a lecturer in Jungian Studies at the University of Philosophical Research in Los Angeles, and as an adjunct instructor at the California Institute of Integral Studies where he has taught classes on ensouled writing and Western Esotericism.
Jonathan Kay is a professional musician, and is currently a PhD student in the department of East-West Psychology at California Institute of Integral Studies in San Francisco under the mentorship of Dr. Debashish Banerji.
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