Tiffani-Marie Fite, a PhD student in the Rice University Department of Religion, is exploring the intersections of religion and psychology, heavily influenced by affect theory and process philosophy. Fite has a particular interest in how experience shapes living-reality. This work highlights Play as a creative, emergent process and force through which we may claim an agential power to change.

Fite received a B.A. in Religion and Psychology at Syracuse University in 2024 with a minor in Contemplative Studies. As a Ronald E. McNair Scholar, their final year was dedicated to research intensive independent work. Fite’s thesis titled “Understanding the Numinous: An Observation of Lily Dale” is founded in an ethnographic understanding of residents’ alignment with ‘Spirit’ and their sense of the numinous, and how that interacts with their meaning-making processes. This thesis continues to inform their doctoral work as they delve into how one comes to a transformative spiritual experience, and how such an encounter resonates back into a shared affective atmosphere.