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Sean Bray

Dissertation Completion Fellow• Germanic & Slavic Languages & Literatures

Sean Bray is a PhD candidate in German Studies, focusing on film, visual media, and critical theory. His dissertation examines the period after fascism (1960s-80) as a moment of racial formation in East and West Germany. His research uses film as a vehicle for understanding how race is being conceptualized and spoken about – or perhaps, tellingly, not spoken about – at this time. Operating across...

Dissertation Fellow• Communication • Media Studies

JEDI Fellow• Communication • Media Studies

M. Hadassah Ward (they/she) is a doctoral candidate in the Department of Communication at the 91���Ҹ� 91���Ҹ�. Their dissertation project, “TRANScending Family,” explores how transgender and gender nonconforming (TGNC) people manage tensions between gender identity and religious morality with talk. By holding a series of focus groups designed to feel like queer brunch events.

John Newton

Eaton Fellow• Religious Studies

Originally from Northeast England, John has lived in Amsterdam for nearly a decade. He holds an undergraduate degree in Psychology & Society, specializing in Transpersonal Psychology and critical approached to dominant psychological and psychiatric practices. He has applied this work in the field by providing emergency drug harm‑reduction services at music festivals.

John previously worked as a facilitator for legal psychedelic retreats and has co‑hosted residencies at the Life Itself Institute focused on contemplative practice and community dialogue. He has trained extensively in the Buddhist insight meditation tradition and recently completed a foundation training in Psychotherapy & Counseling at Regent’s University London.

As an artist and promoter of the public humanities, John is especially passionate about community cinema as a means of creating para‑academic spaces where public scholarship can thrive. He is currently a graduate student in the Religious Studies department at CU 91���Ҹ� and the Eaton Fellow of the Center for Humanities & the Arts (CHA).