Students and Alumni of the PCC MA Program
Philosophy, Cosmology, and Consciousness (MA)
Current 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 and sustainability issues and through her participation in these activities, mainly within communal living situations and community action networks.
She moved to the Bay Area three years ago, joining the PCC program in her search for a deeper understanding of the social and environmental issues facing our global society. By day, Kate works for Backpacker Magazine and Yoga Journal in San Francisco, doing public relations. She is deeply interested and active in the Bay Area urban permaculture movement.
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).
