Ryan Shea

Researcher and Educator

Ryan Shea taught at Providence College for eight years, including courses in philosophy of science, environmental philosophy, and nature writing. He has B.A. and M.A. degrees in philosophy. He brings to his work at The Nature Institute a broad knowledge of ancient philosophical biology (especially Aristotle), the scientific revolution, phenomenology, German idealism, and Goethean qualitative science. Ryan has been interested in Goethean Science since he was a teenager. He began working part-time for The Nature Institute in spring 2023 and is full-time as of September 2024. He is excited to now have the opportunity to develop Goethean practice through research and teaching. He is interested in pursuing the nature of metamorphosis in different realms of the living world, and what it means to read the “book of nature.”

Hear Ryan Shea in our podcast episode of his recorded live talk at the institute, “Living in the Present: Practices for Being In and With Nature,” where he explores ways in which we might receive the capacity of presence directly from nature by working with lessons from plant and animal teachers.