What’s happening at SPU? This is where you’ll find the latest news about research, events, activities, achievements, and milestones in the life of SPU and its people.
SPU's John Perkins Center is hosting Dr. Jemar Tisby and Rev. Dominique Gilliard for the 2023 Perkins Lecture series.
Tisby speaks nationwide on topics of racial justice, U.S. history, and Christianity. He is the author of The New York Times’ bestseller, The Color of Compromise: The Truth About the American Church's Complicity in Racism and How to Fight Racism: Courageous Christianity and the Journey toward Racial Justice.
Gilliard is the author of Rethinking Incarceration: Advocating for Justice that Restores, and he was named Outreach magazine’s 2019 Social Issues Resource of the Year. His latest book, Subversive Witness: Scripture’s Call to Leverage Privilege, won Englewood Review of Books 2021 Book of the Year Award.
A few Christians in the 19th century — particularly those connected with Oberlin College — acted boldly and courageously to end slavery and promote racial equality. Those who did so grounded their activism on Holiness Theology and devotional practices derived from the Wesleyan tradition. The Walls Lecture this year will be a panel presentation given by four professors who have been engaged in a scholarly project known as the “Dialogue on Race and Faith.” The goal of the project has been to study this historical movement and to draw out implications for the Christian church today.
Walls Lecture 2023
For its 100th anniversary, the SPU Music Department singers and musicians will join the Northwest Symphony Orchestra and ChoralSounds Northwest for a special musical collaboration. The evening features more than 100 musicians on stage performing works by Mendelssohn, Dvorak and the world premiere of “A Psalm for the Voiceless” by Joshua A. Idio.
Identify a challenging social issue. Invent a business to help solve it while providing a sustainable revenue. Impossible you say? Not to more than 100 students competing in Seattle Pacific University’s annual Social Venture Plan Competition on Wednesday, April 19. The event is open to the public.
Now in its 17th year, the competition features entrepreneurial projects presented by student teams addressing social issues through sustainable business models. Businesspeople, entrepreneurs, and other community partners evaluate and score the plans. Competitors pitch their projects similar to a live trade-show event to compete for cash prizes.
Wednesday, April 19
2–6 p.m.
Upper Gwinn Commons
A group of living kidney donors climbed Mount Kilimanjaro to raise awareness for kidney donations.
FOR TWO YEARS, BOBBY MCLAUGHLIN ’89 planned and prepared to scale Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania. McLaughlin, who donated a kidney in 2019, dreamed of summiting the tallest mountain on the African continent with a group of organ donors to show the world what a living kidney donor can still do.
You're invited to a free performance about the life of Michael Faraday, a 19th-century scientist who made significant discoveries in physics, chemistry, and electrical engineering.
Saturday, April 1, 7 p.m. at McKinley Hall on campus.
Every year, more than 200 students transfer to Seattle Pacific University. Sometimes it’s a geographical or financial decision, or students are hoping to transfer from a community college to a four-year institution.
Whatever the reasons, we’d love to welcome you to SPU, where we hope you will thrive academically and where we can connect you with our transfer-friendly community!
Here are some of the most common questions students have about transferring to SPU.
George Scranton, professor emeritus of theater, taught at Seattle Pacific for more than four decades. He has written or adapted a dozen plays, five of which received national awards. He enjoyed an academic and professional acting career and directed more than 90 plays in both educational and professional venues. Yet one of George’s most exciting achievements involves the hospitality he and his wife shared with both SPU and the local theatre community.
George talks about his teaching career and hospitality ministry in the latest SPU Voices podcast. Listen now or read the transcript.
Join us Wednesday, April 5, for Seattle Pacific University’s Giving Day – an annual fundraising event to raise support for the areas and programs at SPU you love. Help us go all in for student success on Giving Day! Make sure to check back here for updates as Giving Day approaches.
Danni Gheleva, associate professor of food and nutrition, was featured on the "Healthier Together" segment of local TV station FOX 13 Seattle. Danni talked about the Mediterranean Diet. Watch the story online.
Dr. Christopher Jones ’94 hopes the families in his medical practice never need to ask: “Is my kid sick enough that I should pay for a doctor’s visit?” Medical director of HopeCentral, a nonprofit health center, he and his team have adapted the concept of concierge medicine to a diverse Seattle neighborhood.
Assistant Professor of Philosophy Leland Saunders earned a $10,100 Graves Award in Humanities for his research project, “The Structure of Moral Judgement: Philosophical Perspectives.” His research responds to recent arguments that human beings’ concepts of morality are just a quirk of evolution and don't connect to anything deeper.