DR. AMELIA SERAPHIA DERR
I am a scholar, educator, and writer who works at the intersection of grief, resilience, and justice. As an Associate Professor of Social Work at Seattle University, my research explores grief and caregiving in the context of serious and life-limiting illness, the experience of living with chronic uncertainty, and the conditions that help people sustain themselves in demanding work and lives.
In the classroom, I aim to create space that is alive, where students can wrestle, reflect, and rebuild. In my research, I bring together creative and academic voices, drawing on personal narrative, theory, and empirical inquiry. I am also a parent to a child with a rare disease, an experience that deeply informs my scholarship on grief, caregiving, uncertainty, and the work of continuing to live alongside the possibility of loss. I’m especially interested in how we make meaning amid uncertainty and how we stay open to joy, even at the edge of shadow.