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Sean Esbjörn-Hargens, Ph.D

Dean of Integral Education, and Integral Noetic Sciences Program Director

  • Ph.D., Humanities, 2005, California Institute of Integral Studies

  • M.A., Philosophy & Religion, 2001, California Institute of Integral Studies

  • B.S., Psychology & Philosophy, 1995, Lewis & Clark College


Dr. Sean Esbjörn-Hargens got his PhD in Humanities focused on Philosophy, Cosmology, and Consciousness. from the California Institute of Integral Studies. He is a recognized global leader in the application of integrative thinking and research methodologies in both academic and organizational contexts. His work is characterized by going beyond disciplines into what he calls a metadisciplinary approach. These are big picture approaches that integrate dozens of disciplines from the hard sciences, social sciences, arts and humanities.


In 2004 Sean founded and served for nine years as executive editor of the Journal of Integral Theory and Practice an academic peer-reviewed journal. In this role he published 4000-pages of material from over 100 authors. Between 2006 and 2011 he created and served as chair of a number of new graduate masters and certificate programs at several universities including John F. Kennedy University (JFKU) and Fielding Graduate University. Sean is the founding editor of the SUNY series in Integral Theory.  Since 2008 twelve volumes have been published. Sean has published two dozen articles and book chapters. He has also authored or edited eight books including: Integral Ecology (co-authored with Michael E. Zimmerman), Metatheory for the Twenty-first Century (co-edited with Roy Bhaskar et al), and Dancing with Sophia (co-edited with Michael Schwartz). He is currently co-editing two anthologies on integrative metatheory for Routledge.


Sean has made significant contributions to the fields of integral research, integral ecology, integral business, integral education, and integral philosophy. In 2011 he created MetaIntegral a leadership and consulting company that works with a variety of mainstream and progressive mission-driven companies to measure four types of social impact. In 2018 he founded The Institute of Exo Studies through which he is joining others in pioneering the field of exo studies. Exo studies draws on over 50 disciplines to help make sense of anomalous and extraordinary experiences of our multiverse in all its complexity and mystery.

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