7 Chewing Things Over: Study as Digestive Practice

In response to the question of What is studying? I make a digestive turn to examine the practice of rumination. I propose that studying is a part of the broader embodied experience of rumination: a multispecies, digestive experience, inclusive of a diverse array of minds and bodies. This article aims to recall a version of rumination inclusive of but not exclusive to humans by expanding on the slow, repetitive, and embodied qualities of rumination that present themselves in both human and nonhuman animals. Drawing on work by Friedrich Nietzsche and Ivan Illich, I explore how rumination emerges as a fully embodied experience that leaves its practitioners energized and open to a multitude of possible futures.