Scott D. Churchill, PhD

Scott D. Churchill is professor of psychology at the University of Dallas, where he has previously served as chair and founding director of its masters programs in psychology. 

A fellow of the American Psychological Association and past president of the Society for Humanistic Psychology (Division 32), Dr. Churchill was recently re-elected to the APA Council of Representatives and re-appointed as editor-in-chief of The Humanistic Psychologist, now published by APA Journals. He was recently elected by the Society for Qualitative Inquiry in Psychology as their representative to the executive board for APA’s Division of Quantitative and Qualitative Research (Div. 5). He currently serves on the Society for Theoretical and Philosophical Psychology's (Division 24) Task Force on Ethics, as well as on the editorial boards of Human Studies, Journal of Phenomenological Psychology, Qualitative Psychology, Journal of Theoretical and Philosophical Psychology, Qualitative Research in Psychology, Encyclopaedia: Journal of Phenomenology and Education, International Journal of Qualitative Studies on Health and Well-being, and The Janus Head.

Dr. Churchill has presented keynotes and invited addresses at professional conferences around the world, including Australia, India, Germany, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Italy, and Poland. He has authored articles and book chapters in the fields of phenomenological research methodology, human-bonobo communication, second-person perspectivity, and empathy studies; and has developed and taught numerous courses over a 35-year period at the University of Dallas in phenomenological psychology, hermeneutics, depth psychology, projective techniques, primate studies, cinema studies, lifespan development, embodiment and sexuality, etc. In 2013 the American Psychological Association presented him with its "Mike Arons and E. Mark Stern Award for Outstanding Lifetime Service to the Society for Humanistic Psychology." In 2014 he was named a Piper Professor by the Minnie Stevens Piper Foundation, and was co-named with the University of Dallas Psychology Department as recipient of the APA’s “Charlotte and Karl Bühler Award for Significant and Lasting Contributions to Humanistic Psychology.”

Locally, Churchill is a fellow of the Dallas Institute of Humanities and Culture, and senior film and performing arts critic for the Irving Community Television Network. He has also been affiliated locally with the Jane Goodall Foundation’s Roots & Shoots program, and has helped to set up programs for them in Dallas, Trento, Bari, and Bangalore.

• History of Phenomenology
• Hermeneutics
• Psychoanalysis
• Qualitative Research Methodology
• Empathy
• Second Person Perspective

• PhD Duquesne - Clinical Phenomenological Psychology
• MA Duquesne - Existential Psychology
• BS Bucknell - Biology (Pre-Med)

University of Dallas

Professor of Psychology, May 2003 to present
Graduate Program Director (Psychology), June 2001 to 2012
Chairman of Psychology, June 1996 - May 2003; Fall 2005
Associate Professor of Psychology, June 1989 - May 2003
Member of the Graduate Faculty, Institute of Philosophical Studies, Fall 1984 to present
Assistant Professor of Psychology, April 1984 - May 1989 (full-time, tenured 3/87)
Instructor in Psychology, August 1981 - April 1984 (full-time, tenure-track)

Saybrook University

Adjunct Professor

Memberships in Professional Organizations:

American Psychological Association, Fellow

• APA Council of Representatives
• APA Division Memberships
  • Member, Division 1:  (The Society for General Psychology) 2007 – present
  • Member, Division 2: (Society for the Teaching of Psychology) – 2015 - present
  •   Fellow, Division 5:  (Quantitative and Qualitative Methods) – Executive Board
    • Section III:    Executive Board
  • Member, Division 17  (Counseling Psychology)
  • Member, Division 19  (Military Psychology
  • Member, Division 20  (Adulthood & Aging)
  • Member, Division 22  (Rehabilitation Psychology)
  • Fellow, Division 24 (Society for Theoretical and Philosophical Psychology) – Executive Board
  • Member, Division 26  (History of Psychology) 
  • Fellow, Division 32 (Humanistic Psychology) – Executive Board
  • Member, Division 29 (Psychotherapy)
  • Member, Division 34  (Environmental, Population, and Conservation Psychology)
  • Member, Division 39   (Psychoanalysis)
  • Member, Division 48  (Peace, Conflict, and Violence)
  • Member, Division 52 (International Psychology) 
  • Fellow, Division 56 (Trauma Psychology) - 2007 Charter Member / Founding Fellow

Interdisciplinary Consortium of North American Phenomenologists (Founding Member)

International Human Science Research Association

International Merleau-Ponty Circle

Society for Qualitative Inquiry in Psychology (SQIP) (Founding Member)

• 7331 Historical Foundations of Depth Psychology (Freud)
• 3V56 Primate Studies
• 6311 Phenomenological Foundations of Psychology (Sartre)
• 3339 Existential and Psychosocial Foundations of Lifespan Development
• 3371 Film Studies: Mindscreen
• 4333 Phenomenological Research II 

• Phenomenology of the Body
• Human Suffering
• Trauma
• Adult Psychosocial Development
• Immigrant Experience
• The Other's Regard

Scott D Churchill:  Publications (selected from 70 total)

1. Experiencing the Other within the We: Phenomenology with a Bonobo.  Chapter 5 in L. Embree and T. Nenon (Eds.), Phenomenology 2005 Vol. IV, Selected Essays from North America (pp 147-170), Bucharest: Zeta E-Books.
2. Encountering the Animal Other: Reflections on Moments of Empathic Seeing. The Indo-Pacific Journal of Phenomenology:  Special Issue on Methodology, Volume 6, August 2006, pp 1-13.
3. Nature and Animality (Chapter 14) in R. Diprose & J. Reynolds (Eds.), Merleau-Ponty: Key Concepts. Acumen Publishing, 2008.
4. Methodological Considerations for Human Science Research in the Wake of Postmodernism: Remembering our Ground while Envisioning our Future.  In M. Tarozzi (Ed.), Phenomenology and Human Science Today. Thoughts and Research, Zetabooks, 2010.
5. “Second person” perspectivity in observing and understanding emotional expression. In L. Embree, M. Barber, & T. J. Nenon (Eds.), Phenomenology 2010, Volume 5: Selected essays from North America, Part 2: Phenomenology beyond philosophy (pp 81-106), Bucharest: Zeta Books.
6. Magic carpet ride: Social constructivism in dialogue with phenomenology. Journal of Constructivist Psychology, 2011, 328-332.
7. Resoundings of the Flesh: Caring for Others by way of "Second person Perspectivity.”  In International Journal of Qualitative Studies on Health and Well-being, 2012.
8. Teaching Phenomenology: From My Thirty Years at the University of Dallas. The Indo-Pacific Journal of Phenomenology:  Special Issue on Teaching, Rex Van Vuuren, editor, 2012 September
9. Heideggerian Pathways Through Trauma and Recovery: A ‘Hermeneutics of Facticity’. The Humanistic Psychologist, 41(3), 2013, 219-230.
10. Phenomenology.  In Encyclopedia of Critical Psychology  (pp 1389-1402)  (Thomas Teo, Ed.), Elsevier, 2014.
11. “Practicing What We Preach in Humanistic and Positive Psychology” (with Christopher J. Mruk), American Psychologist, 2014 (January).
12. “An Introduction to Phenomenological Research in Psychology:  Historical, Conceptual, and Methodological Foundations,” (with Frederick J. Wertz) in K. Schneider, J.F.T. Bugental, & J. F. Pierson (Eds.), The Handbook of Humanistic Psychology (Revised Edition), Newbury Park, CA:  SAGE (2015).
13. Resolution to Amend the 2006 and 2013 Council Resolutions to Clarify the Roles of Psychologists Related to Interrogation and Detainee Welfare in National Security Settings, to Further Implement the 2008 Petition Resolution, and to Safeguard Against Acts of Torture and Cruel, Inhuman, or Degrading Treatment or Punishment in All Settings. (Co-Author and Primary Mover.)American Psychological Association. (2015). Retrieved from: http:// www.apa.org/independent-review/psychologists-interrogation.pdf
14. Les dimensions descriptives et interprétatives de la recherche phénoménologique. Complémentaires ou mutuellement exclusives? Recherches Qualitatives, Volume 35(2), 2016, pp. 45-63. (ISSN 1715 8702)
15. Resonating with Meaning in the Lives of Others: Invitation to empathic understanding. In C.T. Fischer, R. Brooke, & L. Laubscher (Eds). The Qualitative Vision for Psychology: An Invitation to a Human Science Approach (pp 91-116), Duquesne University Press, 2016.
16. Explorations in Teaching the Phenomenological Method: Challenging Students to “Grasp at Meaning” in Human Science Research. Qualitative Psychology (in press, 2018).

Recent Conference Presentations (Last 12 Months)

1. On (Revisiting) the Alchemy of Male Desire: Femininity as Totem and Taboo. James Hillman Symposium – Dallas Institute of Humanities and Culture. October 2016.
2. Masculine and Feminine Identities and their Role in Our Intimate Relations.  Keynote Address, Sukrut Institute International Conference 2016: Intimacy and Sexuality: Psychoanalytic Perspectives – KEYNOTE:, Bengaluru, India -- November 25-26, 2016.
3. Questions of Validity and Reliability for Qualitative Research. In K. Gergen (Chair) SQIP Founders Plenary: “Validity in Qualitative Research Reconsidered” – presented at the annual conference of the Society for Qualitative Inquiry in Psychology (SQIP), Fordham University – Lincoln Center, May 23-25, 2017.
4. Phenomenology with a Bonobo: Jacob von Uexküll's Method of 'Participatory Observation' in Action. In M. Morrissey (Chair), Qualitative Methods: Advancing Ethical Inquiry in Human- Animal Relations and Studies, May 23-25, 2017.
5. Imitative Empathy: An Intuitive Method for Psychology. Paper presented at the Interdisciplinary Coalition of North American Phenomenologists (ICNAP), Ramapo College, NJ, May 26-28, 2017.
6. The Development of a Phenomenologically-Based Approach to Psychological Research:  The Early Duquesne School and Beyond.  Presented in Lucian Delescu and Siegfried L. Mathelet (Chairs): Symposium: Phenomenology as unitary epistemological framework for psychology.  Interdisciplinary Coalition of North American Phenomenologists (ICNAP), Ramapo College, NJ, May 26-29, 2017.
7. Pre-Conference WORKSHOP: “Between Necessity and Choice: On Researching Existential Dilemmas”. Presented at the International Human Science Research Conference (IHSRC), Jelenia Góra (Poland), July 11-14, 2017.
8. Participatory Observation” as an Investigatory Posture for Psychiatry, Nursing Science, Physiotherapy, and Human-Animal Studies. The International Human Science Research Conference (IHSRC), Jelenia Góra (Poland), July 11-14, 2017.
9. Challenging Human Science Researchers to “Grasp at Meaning” in Phenomenological Research. The International Human Science Research Conference (IHSRC), Jelenia Góra (Poland), July 11-14, 2017.
10. Entering into Animal Worlds: Experiential Approaches to the Environment of Animals and Humans. Div. 34/48 Special Animal Summit poster program (co-sponsored by Division 34=Environmental, Population, and Conservation Psychology; and Division 48=Peace, Conflict and Violence). The Annual Convention of the American Psychological Association, Washington, D.C., August 3, 2017.
11. Reframing Internal Validity, Reliability, and External Validity for Phenomenological Research.  Div. 5 (Quantitative and Qualitative Research) symposium Validity in Qualitative Research Reconsidered. The Annual Convention of the American Psychological Association, Washington, D.C., August 6, 2017.

• 2014 Minnie Stevens Piper Professor Award, University of Dallas
• 2014 APA's Charlotte and Karl Bühler Award for Significant and Lasting Contributions to Humanistic Psychology
• 2013 SHP's Mike Arons and E. Mark Stem Award for Distinguished Lifetime Service to Humanistic Psychology, Presented at the 121st Annual Convention of the American Psychological Association, Honolulu, HI.