On January 11, 2025, The Seattle School hosted its third annual community-wide Day of Scholarship on campus in Seattle during our Winter Residency, connecting community members to the wider disciplinary and interdisciplinary conversations across our institution. This year’s theme “Engaging (An)other” emphasized the work of Dr. Esther Meek and her contributions as our current Senior Scholar including the Winter 2024 issue of The Other Journal. This publication, Dr. Meek’s gift to The Seattle School, served as an opportunity for faculty and staff to model and practice engaging in discourse with each other. Day of Scholarship 2025 featured a panel discussion highlighting the eight essays where faculty and staff responded to “The Other.” Current students, alumni, staff, and faculty also presented research posters and facilitated breakout sessions, discussing aspects of their research, work, and publications, as noted in the tables below. During this third year of Day of Scholarship, participants once again had opportunities to explore key questions that Seattle School community members are pursuing in their work and research in Seattle and across the country.

Day of Scholarship 2025 Poster Presentations

Poster Presenter(s) Affiliation Poster Title & Notes
Joel Kiekintveld, PhD Faculty “Controlled Burn: A Future for Churches In The Age of Decline”
MJ Wilt, PhD, LMFT, LPC, NCC, licensed PAT facilitator Alumni “Psychedelic-Assisted Therapy: Pragmatics for Clinicians and Clients”

Website

Dwight J. Friesen, DMin Faculty “Mobilizing Faiths in Service of a More Shalomic Urban Future for All”: blog post and poster

Links to organizations:UN-Habitat on the SDGs, Parish Collective, Urban Shalom Society, Faith for Cities, Inner Development Goals

Maggie Hemphill,
Ann Plana,
Students “Psychic Mothering: How Infant Observations Supports A Developing Clinical Mind”: poster pdf
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
Alumni, Student “Rooting a Clinical Mind in Experience: What is the British Object Relations Concentration?”

Resources: Center for Object Relations, Concentration in British Object Relations

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, MATC (’14);
Lauren Peiser
Faculty, Alumni

Staff

“From Purity Culture to Bacterial Belonging: Eucontamination and Beyond”
MJ Wilt, PhD, LMFT, LPC, NCC, licensed PAT facilitator Alumni “Psychedelic-Assisted Therapy: Pragmatics for Clinicians and Clients”

Website

Maggie Hemphill;
Ann Plana
Students “Exploring Lacan Through Film”: poster pdf
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”

**Note: this session was not held due to unforeseen circumstances**

Doug Shirley, EdD, MDiv (’06) 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”