Faculty

Low residency MA in Individualized Studies faculty members bring the benefit of rich and varied backgrounds and interests to the self-designed work of their students. In addition, they bring specialized knowledge to the work of the program’s three concentrations. Below are some of the experiences that shape their knowledge in Consciousness Studies:

Karen Campbell - MA, Cultural Studies

Karen has focused on colonial and postcolonial cultural studies, exploring ways that different languages and cultures determine (and fail to determine) people’s worldviews, their understanding of themselves as interdependent organisms, and how their understanding is embodied in literary and other cultural products, including various religions. She has a profound interest in the impact of western anthropology on cultures defined as Other, the ethics of research in other cultures, and transculturation -- for instance in the ways Euro-American scholarship, and popular cultural imagery, feeds back into cultures and spiritual practices that have been described as “invented” (or certainly shaped) by Orientalist discourses.

Francis X. Charet - PhD, Psychology of Religion

Francis was instrumental in the design and development of the Consciousness Studies Concentration and is the coordinator. Francis has a background in the history of religions and Jungian psychology with interests in philosophy, social science, and neuroscience.

Ellie Epp - PhD, Cognitive Science

A strong motive for Ellie’s work both in art and in theory of mind has been to build a defense of mind that is at the same time a defense of embodiment. Her approach to consciousness is informed by the understanding that mind has evolved through eons of contact with the natural world, and present forms of human cognition continue to rely on that long history of success in perception and action. If we destroy the natural world, we destroy the conditions of our own intelligence. Being About, Ellie’s web book on the neuroscience of perceiving, imagining, and representing, is at: http://www.ellieepp.com/theory/beingabout/being.html.

Ralph H. Lutts - EdD, Philosophical Foundations of Environmental Studies and Environmental Education

Ralph is an environmental historian whose work bridges many fields, including popular culture, literature, animals & society, and natural history and ecology. He is also a student of nature-based religions and spiritual traditions, cross-cultural perspectives on environment, and place studies. Ralph is the coordinator of the Environmental Studies Concentration.

Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg - PhD, English (Creative Writing and Mythology)

Caryn’s interests include ecofeminism, ecopoetics, ecospirituality, personal narrative and the poetics of spirituality, Judaism and Buddhism. Her PhD thesis looked at the connection between mythology, poetry, and women’s studies. Caryn is the coordinator of the Transformative Language Arts Concentration.

James Sparrell - PhD Clinical/Community Psychology

James works in the community as both a clinical and school psychologist, and, along with a background in neuro and cognitive psychology, his interests include poetry, music, philosophy, and inclusive, progressive Christian spirituality.

Lise Weil - PhD, Comparative Literature

Lise’s interests are in literature, feminism, dreams, Buddhism and meditation, and the development and practice of an embodied spirituality.

Read more, visit the low residency MA in Individualized Studies Faculty Directory page.