Sam Harrelson
Spartanburg, South Carolina
sam@samharrelson.com · sharrelson@mymail.ciis.edu
Papers and Publications · Google Scholar · Academia.edu · ORCID · Ecological Intentionality Field Notes · Open Research
Download CV (PDF, updated October 2026)
Research Profile
Ph.D. candidate in Philosophy and Religion, concentrating in Ecology, Spirituality, and Religion, at the California Institute of Integral Studies (expected 2027). My research develops ecological intentionality and the Ecology of the Cross as a phenomenological and theological account of creaturely relation, bringing Edith Stein, Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Aristotle, Henri Bergson, Raymond Ruyer, process-relational thought, and Christian theology into conversation with ecological ethics, vegetal life, artificial intelligence infrastructure, and place-based attention.
My current work asks how other lives can become genuinely present within a shared ecological field without being reduced to the perceiver’s categories, interests, or good. The larger project examines how perception can become more corrigible and receptive while preserving the differentiated goods, limits, and excess of other creatures.
Education
2024-present. Ph.D. candidate, Philosophy and Religion, concentration in Ecology, Spirituality, and Religion, California Institute of Integral Studies, San Francisco, CA. Expected 2027. Advisor: Elizabeth Allison. Current research: ecological intentionality, Edith Stein, phenomenology, process thought, creaturely form, spiritual ecology, and the Ecology of the Cross.
2002. M.A.R., Religion and the Arts, Yale Divinity School, New Haven, CT. Focus: religion and literature, ancient and medieval art, ethics, and religious imagination.
2000. B.A., Religion, Wofford College, Spartanburg, SC.
Research Areas
Ecological theology and spiritual ecology; phenomenology of nature and perception; Edith Stein, empathy, finite being, and form; Maurice Merleau-Ponty, flesh, chiasm, reversibility, écart, and survol; Aristotle, Henri Bergson, and Raymond Ruyer; process thought and Alfred North Whitehead; ecological intentionality and more-than-human ethics; vegetal life and plant ethics; Christian theology of the cross, kenosis, and Carmelite spirituality; decolonial conservation and Gullah Geechee ecological practices; religion, artificial intelligence infrastructure, energy, and water ethics; Assyrian reliefs, displacement, museum ethics, and ancient art reception.
Publications and Research
Book
2006. Asia Has Claims Upon New England: Assyrian Reliefs at Yale. New Haven: Yale University Art Gallery.
Comprehensive Examination Research
2026. “Ecological Intentionality, Creaturely Form, and The Ecology of the Cross: A Cruciform Phenomenology of Creaturely Relation.” First comprehensive examination paper, California Institute of Integral Studies, August 2026. 54 pp. Passed August 31, 2026.
2026-present. “Intimacy with Remainder: Toward Ecological Intentionality.” Second comprehensive examination project bringing Stein’s non-primordiality into conversation with Merleau-Ponty’s flesh, chiasm, reversibility, écart, and survol. The project asks whether belonging can be constitutive without making relation the organism’s norm, and whether a shared perceptual field can preserve differentiated and potentially conflicting creaturely goods.
Current Field Practice
2026-present. Ecological Intentionality Field Notes. Ongoing place-based phenomenological field practice centered on repeated encounters with a mature black walnut in Spartanburg, South Carolina. The practice tests questions emerging from the doctoral research concerning perception, non-primordiality, creaturely form, shared perceptual fields, ecological difference, and the movement from apprehension toward practices of care.
Selected Research Papers and Academic Essays
2026. “A Life in Act: Edith Stein and the Education of Attention.”
2026. “Displaced Forms: Assyrian Reliefs, Ecological Intentionality, and the Ethics of Perception.”
2026. “Ecological Intentionality and the Metaphysics of Living Form.”
2026. “Attention as Ecological Practice: AI Data Centers and the Limits of the Anthropocene.”
2026. “Gigawatts and Wisdom: Toward an Ecological Ethics of Artificial Intelligence.”
2026. “Ecological Intentionality and the Depth of Being.”
2025. “Quantum-Plasma Consciousness and the Ecology of the Cross.”
2025. “Artificial Intelligence at the Crossroads of Science, Ethics, and Spirituality.”
2025. “Integral Plasma Ecology: Toward a Cosmological Theology of Energy and Relation.”
2025. “Integral Plasma Dynamics: Consciousness, Cosmology, and Terrestrial Intelligence.”
2025. “Conservation as Communion.”
2025. “Process Ecology of the Cross: Communion, Kenosis, and the Politics of Planetary Becoming.”
2025. “From Communion to Kenosis: Toward an Integral Ecology of the Cross.”
2025. “Wording the Between: Toward an Ecological Metaphysics of Communion through Liturgy and Language.”
Conference Presentations and Invited Academic Talks
2026. “History as Empathic Ecology: Edith Stein and the Creaturely Horizon of Catholic Memory.” Presented at Eternity in Time: Thinking with the Church through History, Christendom College, Front Royal, VA, February 21.
2026. “Roots of Cruciform Consciousness: Returning to the Ground of Ecological Intentionality.” Presented at the Graduate Conference in Religion and Ecology, Yale Divinity School, New Haven, CT, February 20.
2026. “Ecologies of Refuge: Trees, Crosses, and the Art of Neighborliness.” Presented at the “And Who Is My Neighbor?” Symposium, DePaul University, Chicago, IL, February 17.
2025. “Re-envisioning Boundaries: Ecological Theology, Migration, and the Sacredness of the Non-Human.” Presented at the International Society for the Study of Religion, Nature, and Culture Conference, University of California, Santa Barbara, June.
2025. “Relational Roots and Ecological Futures: Bridging Whitehead, Cobb, and Gullah Wisdom Toward a Decolonized Ecological Civilization.” Accepted for Is It Too Late?: Toward an Ecological Civilization, Center for Process Studies, Pomona College, June; unable to attend.
2025. “Ecological Intentionality: Performing Peace Beyond Human Boundaries.” Presented at the American Academy of Religion, Western Region, Arizona State University, March 16.
2025. Moderator, “The Power of Water in Religious Networks and Creation,” Seventh Annual Religion and Ecology Summit, California Institute of Integral Studies, April 21.
Selected Preaching, Religious Education, and Public Theology
2026. “What We Ask of the Water.” Guest meditation, Unitarian Universalist Church of Spartanburg, August 23.
2026. “The First Home Is a Watershed.” Guest meditation, Unitarian Universalist Church of Spartanburg, August 16.
2026. “Labor Not in Vain.” Progressive Christian Service, Spartanburg, September 6.
2026-present. Youth Sunday School teacher and curriculum designer, First Presbyterian Church, Spartanburg, SC; additional adult Bible study and small-group facilitation.
2014-present. Ordained minister, Cooperative Baptist Fellowship. Preaching, teaching, ecological theology, congregational formation, and public theological reflection.
Teaching and Academic Experience
2024-present. Doctoral researcher, California Institute of Integral Studies. Advanced research and writing in ecology, spirituality, religion, phenomenology, process-relational metaphysics, decolonial methodology, integral ecology, ecological ethics, and theology.
2023-2024. Science Teacher, Wilson Hall, Sumter, SC. AP Environmental Science and middle school Life Science; advised and supported field-based environmental learning.
2021-2023. Science Teacher and Dean of Students, Thomas Sumter Academy, Rembert, SC. Physical Science, AP Physics, Earth and Space Science, student support, academic leadership, discipline, advising, and community formation. Golf Coach.
2011-2013. Science, Math, History, and English Teacher, Carolina Day School, Asheville, NC. Interdisciplinary middle-school instruction across science and humanities. Baseball Coach.
2009-2011. Science Teacher, Spartanburg Day School, Spartanburg, SC. Physical Science and Robotics; inquiry-based science experiences integrating laboratory, engineering, and technology work.
2007-2009. Instructor, Gardner-Webb University, Boiling Springs, NC. Introduction to the Old Testament (Religion 101), including biblical interpretation, historical context, theological themes, discussion, writing, and assessment.
2002-2021. Additional independent-school teaching appointments in South Carolina and North Carolina, including Hammond School and courses or roles not otherwise itemized above. Teaching across the full record included Life Science, Environmental Science, Physical Science, Physics, Robotics, Design Technology, mathematics, religious studies, literature, and creative writing.
Museum and Curatorial Experience
2000-2003. Curatorial Assistant, Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, CT. Research and museum work related to ancient Near Eastern art, Assyrian palace reliefs, biblical archaeology, nineteenth-century American religious imagination, and the collecting and display histories that became the basis of Asia Has Claims Upon New England.
Public Scholarship and Digital Research
2026-present. Ecological Intentionality, public field journal and research site documenting place-based phenomenological practice, creaturely perception, and the development of ecological intentionality through sustained observation of a black walnut in Spartanburg, South Carolina.
2026-present. Carolina Ecology, essays and public scholarship on ecology, water, infrastructure, memory, place, environmental ethics, and the Carolina Piedmont.
2003-present. Essays and public scholarship at samharrelson.com on theology, phenomenology, ecology, technology, education, ministry, and the Ecology of the Cross.
2023-2025. Poetry included in the South Carolina Poetry Collection.
Host, Thinking Religion podcast. Conversations and reflections at the intersections of religion, culture, ecology, theology, and public life.
Consulting and Organizational Work
2004-present. Founder and consultant, Sam Harrelson Consulting / Harrelson Agency. Digital strategy, marketing, web development, communications, and organizational storytelling for nonprofits, churches, schools, and mission-driven organizations.
Founder, MinistriesLab. Project focused on equipping faith communities for ecological futures through theology, ecology, and digital strategy.
Founder, StudiesLab. Intentional learning initiative for gifted young people centered on depth, flexibility, inquiry, and interdisciplinary formation.
Service and Community Engagement
Board Member, First Presbyterian Church Weekday School, Spartanburg, SC.
Youth Sunday School Teacher and Curriculum Designer, First Presbyterian Church, Spartanburg, SC.
2026-present. Facilitator, First Presbyterian Church Men’s Bible Study, Spartanburg, SC.
2026. Public testimony on children’s well-being, housing, and ecology, South Carolina Committee on Children public hearing, Greenville, SC, September.
1997-2000. AmeriCorps community service, Spartanburg, SC.
Teaching Areas and Competencies
Biblical studies and Old Testament; introductory theology; Christian theology and ecology; spiritual formation; world religions; ethics and environmental ethics; religion and literature; religion and art; religion and science; academic writing and research; introductory religious studies; interdisciplinary humanities and science.
Academic Profiles
Google Scholar · ORCID · Academia.edu · Papers and Publications
Selected Digital and Technical Skills
Academic writing and editing; curriculum design; biblical and theological instruction; interdisciplinary pedagogy; student advising and academic leadership; conference presentation design; Zotero; Obsidian; Google Workspace; WordPress; Divi; Substack; digital publishing; podcast production; SEO and digital strategy; web analytics; nonprofit communications.
Updated October 2026.