Day of Scholarship 2025

The Seattle School is hosting its third community-wide Day of Scholarship, open to all students, alumni, staff, and faculty as contributors and guests.This event aims to connect Seattle School community members to the wider disciplinary and interdisciplinary conversations we are having as an institution. Capping off the 2025 Winter Residency, Day of Scholarship will take place on campus January 11 from 8:00 am-1:00 pm. The theme of the event, Engaging (An)other, builds off the work of Dr. Esther Meek and her contributions as our current Senior Scholar. The day will involve a panel discussion on Dr. Meek’s forthcoming essay in The Other Journal as well as poster presentations, breakout sessions, an opportunity to browse and see at-a-glance some of the research, works in progress, and key questions community members are engaging.

We are inviting research poster contributions and breakout session facilitators from all corners of our institution, alumni included. Posters and breakout sessions can comprise sharing about an initiative your center or team has developed, a project already underway, or other relevant research or inquiry. Poster presenters will be onsite for informal conversation during the morning session, with their work on display for the whole day.

Schedule

8:00 am-9:00 am

Check in & Breakfast

9:00 am-10:00 am

Poster Session

10:15 am-11:00 am

Plenary Time and Panel Discussion with Esther Meek: Large Classroom

11:00 – 11:30 am

Break Time 

11:30 am – 12:30 pm

Breakout Sessions: 3rd & 4th Floors 

12:30 – 1:00 pm

Wrap Up: Large Classroom 

 

Day of Scholarship 2025 Poster Presentations

Poster Presenter(s)	Affiliation	Poster Title
Joel Kiekintveld, PhD	Faculty	“Controlled Burn: A Future for Churches In The Age of Decline”
MJ Wilt, PhD, LMFT, LPC, NCC	Alumni	“Psychedelic-Assisted Therapy: Pragmatics for Clinicians and Clients”
Dwight J. Friesen, DMin	Faculty	“Mobilizing Faiths in Service of a More Shalomic Urban Future for All”
Maggie Hemphill, Ann Plana,	Student	“Psychic Mothering: How Infant Observations Supports A Developing Clinical Mind”
Danielle Zurinsky, MSc, PhD	Staff	“Impacts and Experience of Attending a Story Workshop: Preliminary Results from a Qualitative Study”
Jaye L. Minor	Alumni	“Treating Survivors of the Shadow Pandemic: Sexual and Gender Based Violence”
Roy Mong	Student	“Queering Authenticity: How Decolonial Psychoanalysis Can Help Liberate Asian American Identity”
Kaya McCluskey	Student	“Burdened by Hope: A Theopoetic Anthropology on Consent”
Kenna Hight	Alumni	“Inducing the Miscarriage of Support: The Church Meets Abortion”
Amy Lowe, Kindal Loy, Allison Picini, Joseph Stogner	Students	“When Development is Sin”
Emily Englund	Student	“Exploring the Divine Feminine in Christian Theology: Ecofeminism, Mysticism & Aestheticism”
Allison Chow PhD, LMHC, Kris Wheeler MA, LMHC Chris Ritchie, Student	Alumni, Student	“Rooting a Clinical Mind in Experience: What is the British Object Relations Concentration?”

Day of Scholarship 2025 Breakout Session Presenters

Session Presenter(s)	Affiliation	Session Title
Esther Meek, PhD	Faculty, Senior Scholar	“The Other: Returning to Our Natal Philosophy in the Mother’s Smile”
Lauren D. Sawyer, PhD; Lauren Peiser	Faculty, Staff	“From Purity Culture to Bacterial Belonging: Eucontamination and Beyond”
MJ Wilt, PhD, LMFT, LPC, NCC	Alumni	“Psychedelic-Assisted Therapy: Pragmatics for Clinicians and Clients”
Maggie Hemphill; Ann Plana	Student	“Exploring Lacan Through Film”
Joel Kiekintveld, PhD	Faculty	“Controlled Burn: A Future for Churches In The Age of Decline”
Felicia Tran, MATC; Jermaine Ma, PhD	Staff, Faculty, Alumni	“Asian American Feminist Pedagogy and Epistemology in Christian Theological Settings”
Doug Shirley, MDiv ’06, EdD	Faculty, Alumni	“Are We OK? Findings from our Research on Counselor Wellness in the Age of Telehealth”
Paul Hoard, PhD; Ron Ruthruff, PhD	Faculty	“Bridging Aspirations & Impact in Antiracist Education”