Students and Alumni of the PCC PhD and MA Programs

Current MA Students

Eve Briere, a Quebec City native, attended the University of Maine to play soccer and completed an undergraduate degree in International Affairs/Political Science with a minor in Philosophy.

She came to PCC out of the desire to integrate Eastern and Western philosophies in a perspective of psychosocial and ecological change. PCC has turned out to be a vessel for self-realization, which is the source of this greater transformation. Eve teaches and learns about dualities, and strives to embody and inspire growth, humility, and authenticity.

Kathy Anne Woodruff (MA 2004, current student), before entering the PCC master's program in 2002, worked for the Resource Renewal Institute, an environmental nonprofit in San Francisco. She was inspired by that experience to bridge the gap she saw between political activism and personal transformation. With its focus on the evolution of intellectual, psychological, and spiritual structures of consciousness, PCC held out the promise for such a bridge.

Now in the program, Kathy Anne has used her time in PCC as an opportunity not only for intellectual development, but also for personal and spiritual growth. Her academic inquiry has provided her with a rich ground for exploring the limits and possibilities of what it means to be human at this time on planet Earth. Kathy Anne's particular area of focus is the articulation of sexual difference in feminist philosophy and depth psychology. She is interested in the development of women-centered integral frameworks that will serve the understanding and liberation of feminine styles of consciousness and the empowerment of women's community and public culture.

MA Graduates

An MA degree in Philosophy and Religion, with a Concentration in PCC, can prepare graduates for a number of possible vocations or deepen one's relationship with a current career.

PCC alumni are engaged in a wide array of fields, including cutting-edge social and environmental advocacy in the nonprofit sector; primary, secondary, undergraduate, and graduate education; sustainable business and social entrepreneurship; counseling and alternative healing modalities; and local politics. Various PCC MA graduates have also gone on to pursue a either at CIIS or elsewhere.

Kate Hoppe (MA 2007) has been an advocate for just and sustainable living much of her life through the dissemination of information on global issues, natural building, composting and permaculture, and through her participation in these activities, mainly within communal living situations and community action networks.

She moved to the Bay Area in 2005 to join the PCC program in her search for a deeper understanding of the social and environmental issues facing our global society. Kate currently works on Conservation Corps North Bay's Youth in Environmental Service (YES) Crew in Marin, educating and inspiring middle and high school students to become environmental stewards and civil rights activists. Long-term, Kate envisions creating a sustainable urban community that will house and educate people of all ages in green living - summer camps for kids and youth, and longer, live-in programs for college students and professionals hoping to gain experience in renewable energy systems, natural building, conflict resolution, permaculture, nutrition, and whole foods cooking.

Theodore Richards (MA 2008), a longtime student of the Taoist martial art of Bagua and Hatha Yoga, has traveled, worked, and studied in 25 different countries, including countries in the South Pacific, the Far East, the Indian subcontinent, the Middle East, Africa, and Latin America.

Before coming to PCC, Theodore received a degree from the University of Chicago, graduated from the New Seminary in New York City in 2003, and was ordained. He has worked with inner-city youth on the South Side of Chicago, in Harlem and the South Bronx in New York, and in Oakland, CA.

He is currently the codirector, with his wife, Arianne, of YELLAWE, an innovative after-school program in Oakland, created by Matthew Fox, that teaches philosophy, cosmology, and martial arts with a particular emphasis on creativity and imagination.

Jacob Holsinger Sherman (MA 2007) came to PCC to study mysticism, philosophy, and participatory epistemology in the context of a transformative community awake to the social and ecological crises of our time.

He is completing his PhD in Philosophical Theology at the University of Cambridge. Jacob began work on his dissertation about the transformation of philosophy of religion through a radical engagement with the Christian contemplative tradition while still at CIIS.

Drawing on his time at CIIS, Jacob has also participated in and helped to lead study groups with faculty and students at Cambridge on core PCC thinkers such as Alfred North Whitehead, Owen Barfield, and Henri Bergson. He is coeditor (with Jorge Ferrer) of The Participatory Turn: Spirituality, Mysticism, and Religious Studies (SUNY Press, 2008).

Current PhD Students

Drew Dellinger is associate professor and director of the program in Social Ecology at John F. Kennedy University in Pleasant Hill, CA. Drew is also a spoken word poet and activist.

He is founder of Poets for Global Justice and author of Love Letter to the Milky Way: A Book of Poems. In the early 1990s, Drew became a student of ecological thinker Thomas Berry, and it was the inspiring cosmological vision of Berry that set Drew on the path that eventually led him to PCC.

Drew has taught at Prescott College, Naropa University-Oakland, and Esalen Institute. He is writing his dissertation on Martin Luther King Jr. and the intersections of cosmology, ecology, and justice.

Merrill Long received his MA in Consciousness Studies at John F. Kennedy University, where he completed a long-term phenomenological study of the effects of intuitive bodywork.

He found that bodywork helped people release constrictive patterns of energy, allowing a larger, more vital self to emerge. At CIIS, Merrill is trying to more fully understand the somatic dimension of spiritual emergence during the planetary crisis and contextualize it within models of human spiritual evolution. Merrill is a writer, graphic designer, guitarist, singer/songwriter, yogi, husband, and new father.

PhD Graduates

PCC alumni are active locally and internationally, bringing a new perspective to many different areas. Several alumni are now teaching in higher education, many have published books since graduating, and some are continuing in their original careers, practically applying the insights gained from their scholarly research.

Molly Dwyer (PhD 2003) is former vice president of the Satyana Institute. She is the author of the award-winning book Requiem: A Philosophical Novel for the Authoress of Frankenstein.

She received the 1999 Vicker's Award from the International Society for the Systems Sciences for her paper "The Emergent Feminine." Molly's dissertation, titled "Strange Attraction: Toward a New Cosmology of Gender," explored and articulated the "primal nature, role, contribution, and mystery of gender-that is, the existence of the masculine/feminine polarity-from within the context of the evolution of the universe."

Sean Esbjörn-Hargens (PhD 2005) is codirector and a founding member of the Integral Ecology Center of Integral University and has been doing research in environmental philosophy and sustainable development for more than a decade.

Sean is also an assistant professor at John F. Kennedy University in Pleasant Hill, CA, where he teaches courses in consciousness, culture, and ecology. Sean's articles have appeared in the Journal of Consciousness Studies, Journal of Bhutan Studies, World Futures, and AQAL: Journal of Integral Theory and Practice.

He is also one of the editors (along with his wife, Vipassana Esbjörn-Hargens), of Ken Wilber's recent book Simple Feeling of Being. He is currently collaborating with Michael Zimmerman on the book Integral Ecology: Consciousness, Culture, Nature.

Linda Jaye Gibler (PhD 2007), Dominican Sister of Houston, wrote her dissertation on the cosmological interpretation of baptism in Roman Catholic tradition. She is currently the associate academic dean at the Oblate School of Theology in San Antonio, Texas. She is also serving as a technical-editor-for-science for the book Epic of Evolution.

Recent Dissertations

Many prospective students ask us what kinds of dissertations we supervise in PCC. While there is no single answer, the following list of recent dissertations written in the PCC program can give a broad idea of the range of acceptable dissertation topics:

2010 -- Kerri Welch
"A Fractal Topology of Time: Implications for Consciousness and Cosmology"

2009 -- Keiron Le Grice
"Foundations of an Archetypal Cosmology: A Theoretical Synthesis of Jungian Depth Psychology and the New Paradigm Sciences"

2009 -- Scott Hill
"A Jungian Framework for Understanding Psychedelic-Induced Psychotic States"

2009—John Taylor
"The Hidden Spark of Hasidism in Martin Buber's Philosophy of Dialogue"

2008 — Regula Wegmann
"Eco-Sophie: Thinking and Knowing in Dynamic Harmony With the Ways of Nature"

2008 — Rodney O’Neal
"Seasons of Agony and Grace: An Archetypal History of New England Puritanism"

2007—Luan Makes Marks
"Natures of the Sacred: On Native North American Lands and Places"

2007 — Linda Jaye Gibler
"Cosmocentric Sacramentality: Water, Oil, and Fire in the Roman Catholic Celebration of Baptism"

2005 —Sean Esbjörn-Hargens
"Integral Ecology: A Post-Metaphysical Approach to Environmental Phenomena