Process Studies International

Our Academics & Research program arm convenes scholars, facilitates think-tank gatherings and academic conferences, and publishes the results of our research through books and journals. In 2024 we organized 2 major conferences. The Spring conference was "Metaphysics and the Matter with Things: Thinking with Iain McGilchrist" (March 29-31) at the California Institute of Integral Studies in San Francisco. The event featured some two dozen speakers, with roughly 100 participants in-person, and another 400 online. In the Fall, through partnership with the Harvard Chinese Students and Scholars Association, Beijing Normal-Hong Kong Baptist University, and others, we also organized a conference titled "A Century of Process Thought: Commemorating Whitehead's Legacy at Harvard and Beyond" (September 25) held at Harvard University in Cambridge, MA. This conference featured talks by nearly 20 experts, with several hundred in attendance in-person and online. We also published two books as part of our Perspectives in Process Studies series with Cascade Books, and one book as part of our Contemporary Whitehead Studies series with Lexington Books. Publications included essays from past conferences. Expenses for our Academic & Research program services totaled $122,373, which covered salary for program staff, marketing, conferences speaker travel and accommodations, video production, and other event-related expenses. Total revenue (from conference registration fees and book sales) was $16,654.

Our China Project facilitates international, intercultural, and interdisciplinary collaboration to promote ways of understanding and living that can advance social and environmental wellbeing. To this end, in 2024 we engaged in a number of scholarly and educational activities. This included organizing the 17th International Forum on Ecological Civilization (May 24-25) at Pitzer College in Claremont, CA, the 18th Whitehead International Symposium on Children Wisdom Education (June 25) in Beijing, the International Symposium on Process Philosophy and Comparative Studies of Chinese Thought (July 6-7), the 17th Process Summer Academy (July 8-13) at Beijing Normal University-Hong Kong Baptist University in Zhuhai, and a conference on Organic Process Thinking and Ecological Transformation of Enterprises (July 14-15) in Shenzhen. These conferences and courses included lectures from dozens of scholars from around the world, engaging thousands of attendees (in-person and online). We also organized a series of 9 webinars on process philosophy and ecological civilization; featuring professors from leading US and Chinese universities. China Project expenses totaled $87,960, which covered the salary of program staff, marketing, and event-related expenses, as well as a $1,000 grant to the Whitehead Kindergarten in Beijing for library books. Total revenue (from conference registration fees) was $7500.

We published two issues of our peer-reviewed academic journal called Process Studies, covering a range of topics including: philosophy, mathematics, chemistry, religion, and more. The journal is published in print and online, and distributed to roughly 500 university libraries and individual subscribers worldwide. Program expenses totaled $7,150 included payment to University of Illinois Press for printing and distributing the journal, and for managing institutional and individual subscriptions. We also received $14,976 in program revenue from journal subscription fees.

Our Korea Project works to create a more sustainable and equitable society in Korea and beyond, through educational and research activities. In 2024 most of our focus was on translating English books on ecological civilization and process philosophy into Korean. Korea Project program expenses totaled $17,776, which covered salary for program staff.

Some of the program work we did in 2024 was for activities that won't be realized until 2025 or later. We had $32,164 in 2024 expenses for future educational and research programming (conferences, webinars, publications, courses, etc.), which covered salary for program staff.