Certificate in Process Thought & Practice 2025 - header - 1300x500

A Transformative and Holistic Educational Experience to Cultivate a More Just, Sustainable, and Fulfilling World

The certificate program provides students with a unique opportunity to learn about the great diversity of process philosophies and the wide variety of ways in which those ideas can be expressed in everyday life. It begins with a general introduction to process thinking and ways of living and ends with an opportunity for participants to creatively and concretely express what they have learned. In between students will participate in courses covering a variety of topics: an in-depth look at Whitehead's philosophy of organism, an exploration of religious traditions through a process-relational perspective, an overview of the complex landscape of ecological civilization, a reflection on the artistic modes of creative becoming, and an analysis of the relevance of Whitehead's cosmology to the natural sciences.

We look forward to you joining us for this experiment in a creative, transformative, and holistic adventure of ideas.

“There is only one subject matter for education, and that is Life in all its manifestations.”
–Alfred North Whitehead, Adventures of Ideas

Program Requirements

number 1

Complete Required Courses
2 core | 1 elective | 1 audit

  1. Attend each class session or view the recording
  2. Complete required readings
  3. Participate in discussion forum
  4. Complete required project
number 2

Complete a Synthesis & Springboard Project
Produce one of the following:

  1. Research paper
  2. Creative localization project
  3. Work of art

COURSES

Dates and times are subject to change.

CORE (2 required)

Introduction to Process-Relational Thought & Practice

The process-relational tradition can be imagined as a vibrant and growing tree. The roots consist of the key ideas in Whitehead’s philosophy; the trunk consists of general ideas that flow from his philosophy and that can be understood by people from many walks of life; and the branches consist of applications of these ideas in personal life and community development, as guided by four ideals that are shared by process-relational thinkers: whole persons, whole communities, a whole planet, and holistic thinking.

This course covers all three areas: roots, trunk, and branches. It provides the foundation and framework for all the other courses in the certificate program. It begins with an elaboration of the tree as a guiding metaphor and some of the key ideas and core values shared by process thinkers. The focus will then turn to an introduction to the basic ideas of process-relational philosophy. And it will conclude with an exploration of process practices. Its aim is to provide an overview that can serve as a springboard for further study and action.

Dates:January 22 – February 26
Times:Wednesdays, 5:00 – 6:30 PM Pacific

Instructors

Bob Mesle

Bob Mesle

Jay McDaniel - 2023-05

Jay McDaniel

Whitehead’s Process Philosophy

Whitehead’s “philosophy of organism” is one of the most significant attempts in all of philosophy to think through what reality must be like because you are apart of it. His philosophical vision is at once vast, various, and prismatic. His wife Evelyn once used the wonderful metaphor of a prism to describe his thinking, saying: “It must be seen not from one side alone but from all sides, then from underneath and overhead. So seen, as one moves around it, the prism is full of changing lights and colours. To have seen it from one side only is to not have seen it.” The five sessions of this course aim to reveal the various sides, lights, and colors belonging to Whitehead’s process philosophy from the microscopic to the macroscopic, and in direct relation to your experience as an expression of the universe.

Dates:March 13 – April 10
Times:Thursdays, 5:00 – 7:00 PM Pacific

Instructor

Andrew Davis - head shot - 2025-12 - crop

Andrew Davis

ELECTIVES (take 1 for credit and 1 as an auditor)

Processing Religion & Wisdom Traditions

We live in a world marked by great diversity, and if humans are to live peaceably together, we must seek to understand each other. In this course, participants will explore various world religions, as well as indigenous/traditional ways of thinking and living, through a lens of process and relational thought. Over the course of six sessions, we will discuss Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, and Indigenous/Traditional Ways. As we approach each tradition, we will seek to encounter its commitments and matters of ultimate concern alongside its primary practices, exploring how it may be situated within process and relational metaphysics. Through this lens, we might ask how each tradition fosters zest and enjoyment, nourishes its adherents’ spiritual and ethical lives, and knits communities together, with an eye on each tradition’s view of the proper relationship between the transpersonal or sacred and humans, as well as between humans and the earth.

Dates:April 22 – May 27
Times:Tuesdays, 5:00 – 6:30 PM Pacific

Instructor

Leslie King - small

Leslie King

Process Thought & Ecological Civilization

This course explores visions of ecological civilization, drawing upon process-relational understandings of the cosmos; the history of ecological struggles and movements; and central ideas and practices that have emerged in philosophical, scientific, economic, artistic, religious, and activist communities of reflection. The purpose is to gather and build upon practical wisdom that has power to transform the downward spiral of ecological destruction and to foster movements for protecting, healing, and regenerating our broken planet. The course is an invitation for participants to travel into the midst of crises and seek possibilities for ecological justice and wellbeing.

Over the course of six sessions, we will identify and analyze dominant assumptions about the human and more-than-human natural world, critiquing and reshaping them from the standpoint of process-relational and other traditions of thought. We will explore these assumptions through case studies, readings and videos, presentations by experts, student projects, and probing conversations.

Dates:June 11 – July 16
Times:Wednesdays, 5:00 – 6:30 PM Pacific

Instructor

MaryElizabethMoore-600x600

Mary Elizabeth Moore

Creative Becoming: Process Philosophy and the Arts

This six-session course explores the dynamic intersection of Alfred North Whitehead’s process philosophy and the arts. Each session focuses on a specific art form and its relationship with Whitehead’s ideas, offering opportunities for reflection, discussion, and creative exploration. Topics to be explored include the following: poetry, beauty, the visual arts, music, and film.

Co-taught by Jay McDaniel, a process philosopher, and Kathleen Wakefield, a poet and artist, the course provides an interdisciplinary journey into the ways creativity, beauty, and relationality shape our artistic and philosophical engagement with the world.

Dates:July 30 – September 3
Times:Wednesdays, 5:00 – 6:30 PM Pacific

Instructors

Jay McDaniel - 2023-05

Jay McDaniel

2023-06-20 - Kathleen Wakefield

Kathleen Wakefield

Processs Thought & Science

This course introduces students to Alfred North Whitehead’s organic cosmology by exploring its relevance to contemporary natural science, including physics, biology, and cognitive neuroscience. In light of his protest against the modern bifurcation of nature into separate physical and psychical domains, the course examines the ways Whitehead’s process-relational ontology allows us to understand the knowledge produced by natural science as compatible with human experience, including the presuppositions of ethical social relations and cultural self-understanding. Whitehead’s “organic realism” makes it possible to re-enchant the world without contradicting the latest scientific findings. In fact, his philosophy of organism provides us with one of the most promising means of integrating the increasingly fragmented natural and social sciences into a comprehensive and potentially civilization renewing vision.

In this six-session course, students can expect to gain a deeper understanding of the major categories of Whitehead's metaphysical scheme, receive an introduction to his novel interpretations of relativity, quantum, evolutionary, and complexity theories, and become familiar with the usually unspoken metaphysical assumptions underlying contemporary physical cosmology.

Dates:September 17 – October 22
Times:Wednesdays, 5:00 – 6:30 PM Pacific

Synthesis & Springboard Project

The culminating experience of the certificate program provides an opportunity for participants to integrate and synthesize various aspects of the subject matters they studied within the program. This experience may take the form of an academic research paper, a creative localization project illustrating the application of process thought, or a work of art (including a performance) with substantial commentary.

Examples of possible projects include developing an introduction to process thought in a local setting, creating an open and relational arts festival, developing an urban garden, or setting up programs at a local library exploring the four hopes of the process movement. Participants can begin thinking about their capstone experiences early in the process and be in communication with the dean of the program (Chris Hughes) and other faculty members.

“The ultimate subject in education is Life in all it manifestations: human life but also the life of the plants and animals, the earth, and the wider universe. The whole of nature is alive.”
–Jay McDaniel, Open Horizons

Enrollment is limited to 35 students.

No new registrations will be accepted after February 1, 2025.

Price

$399
  • Receive one-on-one advising from the program dean
  • Lifetime access to session recordings
  • Receive early notification of future courses
  • Watch live or follow your own schedule
  • Interact with class members via discussion forums

Past Programs

Find out about out previous programs.

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