The Center for Ecumenical and Interreligious Engagement (CEIE) at Seattle University is dedicated to the Ignatian sensibility for “finding God in all things,” with a preferential option for convening faculty and practitioners (CEIE Scholars) who engage topics at the margins of society.  

Evident in our scholarly projects to date, CEIE scholars are convened across disciplines.  They commit to studying a specific topic.  The chosen topic will present a significant moral, societal, theological and cross-disciplinary challenge for the world.  Our most recent project focuses upon Gratitude, Injury, and Repair in a Pandemic Age. 

CEIE Scholars meet twice, draft and share papers that respond to the topic, and then engage in a form of Ignatian discernment that is specific to the Center’s formula for advancing literacy on the topic and all related themes. 

CEIE distributes the results of the study through a reputable journal or publisher and develops an online resource for use in local communities wherever there is access to an internet connection.   

Explore our two latest topics of study and engagement by visiting our Resources page and return for more news about forthcoming projects. 

A university that sees itself as a venture aimed at transforming society will gravitate towards the margins of society, i.e. to the people who are left out by the structures and interests that dominate our world. Such a university will throw open its doors and windows to the people at the margins, who will in turn bring with them a new breath of life that will be source of life in abundance for what we are doing to try and transform the world.

– Father General Arturo Sosa SJ World Meeting of Jesuit Universities, July 10, 2018 

Meet the CEIE Scholars

Click on the pictures below for contact information and extended biographies!

Photo of Susan Abraham, Th. D.

Susan Abraham, Th. D.

Professor of Theology and Postcolonial Cultures, VP of Academic Affairs and Dean of Faculty at Pacific School of Religion

Susan Abraham is Professor of Theology and Postcolonial Cultures, VP of Academic Affairs and Dean of Faculty at Pacific School of Religion. She is the author of Identity, Ethics, and Nonviolence in Postcolonial Theory: A Rahnerian Theological Assessment (Palgrave Macmillan, 2007) and co-editor of Shoulder to Shoulder: Frontiers in Catholic Feminist Theology (Fortress, 2009). 

Photo of Rt. Rev. Edward Donalson III, DMin.

Rt. Rev. Edward Donalson III, DMin.

Director of Doctor of Ministry for the School of Theology and Ministry of Seattle University

Professor, author, thought coach, and multi-media personality, Rt. Rev. Edward Donalson III, DMin is a visionary with a dynamic message of empowerment. Born in Philadelphia, PA and cultivated in Seattle, WA as a bi-coastal youth, he developed a heart for diversity and an ability to navigate all socioeconomic, educational, and ethnic spheres. Traveling nationally as a guest lecturer, workshop clinician, and preacher since 1996, he is a constructive theologian with a liberative lens. His scholarship centers intersectional theology as an emerging discipline. 

Photo of Jaisy A. Joseph, Ph. D.

Jaisy A. Joseph, Ph. D.

Assistant Professor, Systematic/Constructive Theology at Villanova University

Jaisy A. Joseph is an Assistant Professor of Systematic/Constructive Theology at Villanova University and a Fellow at the Louisville Institute (2018-2020). With interests primarily in ecclesiology and theological anthropology, her main areas of research involve understandings of unity and difference in the Catholic church, how these definitions have shifted over the centuries, and how erroneous expressions have wounded the bonds of communion between different peoples.

Photo of Patricia O’Connell Killen, Ph. D.

Patricia O’Connell Killen, Ph. D.

Professor of Religion, Emerita and Faculty Research Fellow in the Division of Humanities at Pacific Lutheran University, Tacoma, Washington

A historian and theologian, Killen’s scholarship focuses on Catholicism in North America, religion and spirituality in the Pacific Northwest, theological reflection, and, mission and identity in faith-inspired higher education. She researches the intersection of social context, community, and spirituality, exploring how, in differing social contexts, communities “think” with the wisdom of their religious heritage to address the challenges and novel circumstances of their time.

Photo of Kristi Lee, Ph. D.

Kristi Lee, Ph. D.

Associate Professor of Clinical Mental Health Counseling at Seattle University

Kristi Lee is an Associate Professor of Clinical Mental Health Counseling at Seattle University. In her role, she teaches a human development course using service-learning and has collaborated on over 70 community-based projects with students and community partners. Kristi is the director of the Academic Service-Learning Faculty Fellows Program which trains faculty in the pedagogy of service-learning. In addition, Kristi serves on the leadership team of the SU ADVANCE grant that is working to bring equity to faculty promotion guidelines for women and faculty of color. 

Photo of Vasudha Narayanan, Ph. D.

Vasudha Narayanan, Ph. D.

Distinguished Professor, Department of Religion, at the University of Florida and a past President of the American Academy of Religion (2001-2002)

Vasudha Narayanan is Distinguished Professor, Department of Religion, at the University of Florida and a past President of the American Academy of Religion (2001-2002). She was educated at the Universities of Madras and Bombay in India, and at Harvard University. Her fields of interest are the Hindu traditions in India, Cambodia, and America; visual and expressive cultures in the study of the Hindu traditions; and gender issues. She is currently working on Hindu temples and traditions in Cambodia.

Photo of Jodi O'Brien, Ph. D.

Jodi O'Brien, Ph. D.

Professor of Sociology at Seattle University and Director of SU ADVANCE

Jodi O'Brien is currently a Professor of Sociology, and Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies at Seattle University and the Director of SU ADVANCE, a university-wide, National Science Foundation-funded program for the advancement of women and minoritized faculty. She teaches and conducts scholarship across a wide range of fields including cultural studies, critical race scholarship, gender/transgender studies, liberation sociology, religion, and social psychology.

Photo of Doug Peduti, SJ, Ph. D.

Doug Peduti, SJ, Ph. D.

Scholar in Residence, Simon Silverman Phenomenology Center, Duquesne University, Pittsburgh, PA.

Born and raised in the Pittsburgh area of southwest Pennsylvania, I was raised on a farm and enjoy hiking in the great outdoors and the spiritual strength that it implicitly shelters. Interested in religious life, I entered the Jesuits in 1983 and was ordained as a Jesuit priest in 1996. My academic and ministerial focus is on bridging the religious, cultural, and linguistic depths of the human spirit and experience.

Photo of Anantanand Rambachan, Ph. D.

Anantanand Rambachan, Ph. D.

Professor of Religion at Saint Olaf College

Anantanand Rambachan is Professor of Religion at Saint Olaf College, Minnesota. He was also Visiting Professor at the Academy for the Study of World Religions at the University of Hamburg in Germany (2013-2017).  His books include: Accomplishing the Accomplished: The Vedas as a Source of Valid Knowledge in Shankara, The Limits of Scripture: Vivekananda's Reinterpretation of the Authority of the Vedas, The Advaita Worldview: God, World and Humanity, A Hindu Theology of Liberation and Essays in Hindu Theology. 

Photo of Mona Siddiqui, OBE, FRSE, FRSA

Mona Siddiqui, OBE, FRSE, FRSA

Mona Siddiqui joined the University of Edinburgh’s Divinity school in December 2011 as the first Muslim to hold a Chair in Islamic and Interreligious Studies. She also holds the posts of Assistant Principal for Religion and Society and Dean international for the Middle-East at the University.  Her research areas are primarily in the field of Islamic jurisprudence (fiqh) and ethics and Christian-Muslim relations. Amongst her publications are, 50 Ideas in Islam (Quercus, 2016),Hospitality in Islam: Welcoming in God’s Name (Yale UP, 2015), My Way: A Muslim Woman's Journey (IB Tauris, 2014), Christians, Muslims and Jesus (Yale University Press, 2013) and The Good Muslim: Reflections on Classical Islamic Law and Theology (Cambridge University Press, 2012). 

Photo of James V. Spickard, Ph. D.

James V. Spickard, Ph. D.

Retired Professor Emeritus of Sociology & Anthropology at University of Redlands

Jim Spickard recently retired after 31 years of teaching at the University of Redlands. Most of his courses were in sociology and anthropology, particularly social theory, the sociology of religion, social inequality, the American class system, international development, and social science research design. He also taught in the programs of religious studies, environmental studies, and visual/media studies.

Photo of Michael Reid Trice, Ph. D.

Michael Reid Trice, Ph. D.

Director, Center for Ecumenical and Interreligious Engagement, Spehar-Halligan Associate Professor

In July 2021, Michael Trice was appointed to the directorship and professorship at the Seattle University Center for Ecumenical and Interreligious Engagement as its founding director. Trice is a Faculty-Administrator who is a professionally trained theologian with demonstrated experience in leading outcome-based teams at the axis of public theology in society. Rooted in both interdisciplinarian and integrationist methodologies, Trice has a strong interest in responding to the theological challenges of our world today. 

Photo of Nathanael Vette, Ph. D.

Nathanael Vette, Ph. D.

Issachar Fund Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the School of Divinity, University of Edinburgh

Nathanael Vette is a British-Australian scholar of Early Christianity and Second Temple Judaism, with a special focus on the Gospels and Jewish-Gentile relations in the first-century ce. He is currently the Issachar Fund Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the School of Divinity, University of Edinburgh. His first two publications Gratitude: Christian and Muslim Perspectives, expected Cambridge University Press, and the monograph Writing with Scripture: Scripturalized Narrative in the Gospel of Mark, forthcoming with Bloomsbury T&T Clark, are both anticipated for 2021.  

Subscribe to Our Newsletter

Newsletter_8/24 Graphic

Your Financial Gift: 100% of your financial gift supports the present and future of CEIE. Please Inspire Us with Your Gift.