Summer Research Seminar 2024

The Quaker Institute for the Future’s 2024 Summer Research Seminar was held online August 12-16 using Zoom.

The SRS announcement is found in this notice.


QIF Summer Research Seminars create a venue for spirit-led research using Quaker methods of discernment and reflection. The seminars are centered around research presentations that occur within a setting of collaborative discernment conducted as a meeting for worship. Emphasis is placed on supporting those who choose to present the work that they are doing through worship together, along with additional time for questions, clarification, and discussion. Time is also reserved for theme-based discussions, worship sharing, artistic and other creative sharing, and informal interactions among participants. More information about summer research seminars is available here.

Youth Grants for Activists and Researchers

This year, QIF is offering $500 stipends to applicants aged 18 to 35 years old to make a presentation on research or activism that resonates with the QIF mission of advancing a global future of inclusion, social justice, and ecological integrity through Spirit-led participatory research and discernment. This is part of a year long program of Youth Grants. NOTE: People may choose to apply for a Youth Grant independently of the Summer Research Seminar and use it for purposes other than to develop a presentation at the SRS.

If you wish to apply for a Youth Grant for the 2024 SRS, please send your application by July 1.

For more information on the Youth Grants, see: Youth Grants for Activist Researchers 2024

Registration and More Information

We welcome those who wished to present a project to be followed by worshipful discernment including all in attendance, those who wished to participate in introducing and facilitating a theme-based discussion, as well as those who just wished to attend and participate without taking on either a presentation or theme-based facilitation.

Please fill out this registration form to attend and/or present.

You may contact Gray Cox at gray@coa.edu for additional information about the next SRS, including more about the stipends and how to apply for them.

Schedule and Supporting Information

To help create a safe space for all, we invited participants to use the “Ouch, Whoa, Oops” model: Ouch Whoa Oops Handout

Monday: Seeking Understanding
12:00 – 1:00 pm EDT (9:00 – 10 am PDT) Welcome, introduction, and Meeting for Worship
1 – 4 pm EDT (10 am – 1 pm PDT) Meeting for Worship for Research (with mid-period break)
– 1:00 EDT: Quaker Research: Devotion and Resistance to Empire, an Inner Journey (Stan Searle)
– 2:30 EDT: Is 2024 the New 1938?: Snapshot of the Year (Erica Adams)
4:30 – 5:15 pm EDT (1:30 – 2:15 PDT) Get acquainted groups (optional)
6 – 8 pm EDT (3 – 5 pm PDT) Discerning Quaker Testimonies and Legislative Priorities on AI (Gray Cox)

Tuesday: Living Wisely on Planet Earth
12:30 – 1:00 pm EDT (9:30 – 10 am PDT) Meeting for Worship
1 – 4 pm EDT (10 am – 1 pm PDT) Meeting for Worship for Research (with mid-period break)
– 1:00 EDT: A Glossary for Earth and All Her Beings (Margaret McCasland)
– 2:30 EDT: Knowledge Graphs for Land-Based Knowledges: Encoding Restoration Ecology and Environmental History (Tim Alamenciak)
4:30 – 5:15 pm EDT (1:30 – 2:15 PDT) Interest groups (optional)
6 – 8 pm EDT (3 – 5 pm PDT) Empire, AI, and Earth Life: Discussion of Presentations

Wednesday: Follow the Money
12:30 – 1:00 pm EDT (9:30 – 10 am PDT) Meeting for Worship
1 – 4 pm EDT (10 am – 1 pm PDT) Meeting for Worship for Research (with mid-period break)
– 1:00 EDT: Exploring Western Economic Models: from Feudalism to Capitalism to Socio-Bio-Physical (Elizabeth Keokosky)
– 2:30 EDT: The Money System and the World We Seek I (CoD)
4:30 – 5:15 pm EDT (1:30 – 2:15 PDT) Interest groups (optional)
6 – 8 pm EDT (3 – 5 pm PDT) The Money System and the World We Seek II (CoD)

Thursday: Acting on Social Crises
12:30 – 1:00 pm EDT (9:30 – 10 am PDT) Meeting for Worship
1 – 4 pm EDT (10 am – 1 pm PDT) Meeting for Worship for Research (with mid-period break)
– 1:00 EDT: Bolivian Hunger Strikes of 1978 (Keith Runyan)
– 2:30 EDT: Value-Centered Housing Choices: How Do Our Choices Around Housing Reflect Our Values Relating to Each Other and the Earth? (Nathan Kleban)
4:30 – 5:15 pm EDT (1:30 – 2:15 PDT) Interest and get acquainted groups (optional)
6 – 8 pm EDT (3 – 5 pm PDT) Book Launch: Sketches from Behind Prison Walls (Devon Kurz)

Friday: Building a Better Future
12:30 – 1:00 pm EDT (9:30 – 10 am PDT) Meeting for Worship
1 – 4 pm EDT (10 am – 1 pm PDT) Meeting for Worship for Research (with mid-period break)
– 1:00 EDT: QVS: Working with Young Adults and Exploring Their Vision of the Future (Ruth Cutcher)
– 2:30 EDT: Quaker Earthcare Witness (QEW) (Keith Runyan)
4:30 – 5:30 pm EDT (1:30 – 2:30 PDT) Summing up: what emerged during the week? Where do I see hope? What’s next?

Quaker Institute for the Future