Associate Professor
College Hall 369
Department
Humanities
Mailing Address
235 Wellesley Street
Weston, MA 02493
About
About
Joseph Draper is Chair of the Humanities Department and Associate professor of Philosophy and Religious Studies. His primary research interests are in the intersection of ethics, religious belief, and mental complexity. His interdisciplinary research and courses explore how we make ethical and religious meaning through the lenses of cognitive theory, developmental psychology, and anthropology.
Education
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Boston College, 2008. Dissertation: Evolving Communities: Adapting Theories of Robert Kegan and Bernard Lonergan to Intentional Groups.
Master of Arts, University of St. Thomas, St. Paul School of Divinity, 1994.
Philosophy
One of the privileges of studying at Regis is the many ways undergraduate and graduate students are invited to understand, apply and integrate learning through co-curricular activities, internships, and various forms of experiential learning. This aligns closely with Dr. Draper’s own philosophy of education where learning occurs in classrooms of multiple modalities and in communities of practice guided by caring professionals.
Awards Honors
Fall, 2016 Lonergan Fellowship award by the Lonergan Institute, Boston College. Exploring the influence of Jean Piaget on Bernard Lonergan’s Realms of Meaning.
2013/14 Kaneb grant recipient. Wrote Ethics and Human Consciousness, an interactive iBook book that explores ethics through the lenses of philosophy, cognitive theory, and developmental psychology.
2014 Apple iPad iTunes grant recipient. Wrote Catholicism: An Evolutionary Perspective, an interactive iBook book that explores the history and theology of the Catholic Church through a developmental lens.
Spring, 2010 Lonergan Fellowship award by the Lonergan Institute, Boston College. Expanded my dissertation chapter three on Paul and the Corinthian community into a book-length manuscript.
Publications
Dissertation: Evolving Communities: Adapting Theories of Robert Kegan and Bernard Lonergan to Intentional Groups. A qualitative and theoretical study of the cognitive growth of groups in Catholic parishes over a ten year period in dialogue over parish restructuring and priest sexual abuse.
2012 Joseph P. Draper and Daniella Zsupan-Jerome, The Body of Christ: The Church, High School Edition. (Dublin: Veritas Publishing, 2013).
Presentations
2018 Association of Core Texts and Courses (ACTC), Framingham, MA "Epochs and the Epic: Post-Secular Re-Mythologized Earth"
2017 Black Student Union Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration, Regis College, January 17 Keynote Address, "Unfinished Legacy of MLK".
2016 President’s Lecture Series, Regis College, Weston MA, November 9, 2016. Panel Discussion: Organ Transplants and Regenerative Medicine, "Children as Living Donors: Ethical Considerations".
2014 “A Layman’s Voice after the Synod,” Regis College Across the Board.
2013 PHI Public Heritage Institute, Regis College, Weston MA, April 12, 2013. Presented a paper titled: "Pedagogy of Subordination: Women, Laity, and the Hierarchy in the Catholic Church".
2010 SAGP (Society of Ancient Greek Philosophy), Fordham University, Manhattan, NY campus, October 15-17, 2010. Presented a paper titled: "Wrath, Religion, and Reason:Evolving Consciousness in Homer, Sophocles, and Socrates".
2010 CTA (College Theology Society), University of Portland, OR. Presented a paper titled: "Perplexing Minds: Interpreting Corinthian Complexity through the Lens of Bernard Lonergan".
2009 REA/APPRRE, (Religious Education Association), Dallas, TX. Presented a paper titled: "God and Evolving Consciousness".
2006 REA/APPRRE Atlanta, GA. Presented a paper titled: "Toward a Self-Shepherding People: Evolving Faith Communities through the Lens of the Epistemological Theories of Bernard Lonergan and Robert Kegan".
2005 REA/APPRRE, Toronto, Canada. Presented research findings: "Rhetoric and Reality in Religious Education: Parishes and Dioceses in Dialogue".