GTU Voices - Interview | Alysiana Carter, Presidential Scholarship Recipient

Alysiana Carter is a recipient of the Presidential Scholarship for the 2024-2025 academic year. Join us in welcoming her to the GTU!

GTU: What were the formative influences in your life – people, places, experiences – that led you to where you are today?

Alysiana Carter: My scholarly approach has been profoundly informed by the pedagogy of my alma mater, St. John’s College, which emphasizes primary sources and direct experience. Given this foundation it’s no surprise that when I reflect on some of the greatest influences guiding my path, I am caught in a torrent of my favorite authors. The answer I would like to give to this question would look more like a works cited page, but sacrificing thoroughness for brevity, I will highlight a few figures who have been seminal to me. I can’t imagine my academic journey without Terence McKenna; in my Dantean journey through psychedelic philosophy, he has been my Virgil. Clarice Lispector and Joan Didion have shaped my voice and defined my style. Ann Shulgin is who I want to be when I grow up: loving, clear, and wise. While my nose has been stuck in my books, I have been upheld by my family, friends, and teachers, for whom I am endlessly grateful.

GTU: How would you describe your academic interests?

AC: My academic interests focus on the psychedelic experience and the broader psychedelic movement. My research centers the ‘psychedelic canon,’ which I define as both the literature that has emerged directly from psychedelic experience and the kaleidoscopic mix of existing religious, philosophical, and literary texts that the movement engages with in order to articulate (or attempt to articulate) the psychedelic state. This work is inherently interdisciplinary, drawing on this broad array of frameworks to examine the recorded attempts at solidifying the fleeting numinosity of the psychedelic experience into something stable and communicable. Through my research at GTU, I hope to help further define the contours of the psychedelic canon, and to examine how these texts influence our understanding of psychedelics. I am particularly interested in the role of expectation in the psychedelic experience, and the mutuality of the relationship between the psychedelic state and this ‘psychedelic canon’.

GTU: What drew you to attend GTU for your Doctoral studies?

AC: My decision to pursue doctoral studies at GTU was motivated primarily by two factors, the unparalleled support for interdisciplinary religious studies, and the opportunity to work with leading scholars across both GTU and U.C. Berkeley. Every professor I’ve ever consulted about graduate school has emphasized the importance of finding the right advisor, and from our first meeting I knew Dr. Shonkoff would be an excellent fit. His extensive knowledge and passion for the psychedelic studies field immediately resonated with me, and I felt confident that GTU, alongside the wider academic community in Berkeley, would provide the perfect environment for my research.

GTU: What are you most looking forward to in your Doctoral studies at the GTU?

AC: Immersing myself in the community of scholars at GTU and beginning my studies in earnest. I’m particularly enthusiastic to start my class on Psychedelics, Entheogens, and Spiritual Care this fall. It will be my first time studying psychedelics within the context of chaplaincy, and I’m eager to integrate that perspective into my research. Next semester I look forward to taking classes at U.C. Berkeley alongside my classes at the GTU, and I’m especially looking forward to resuming my Sanskrit studies. I’m honored by the opportunity to deepen my scholarship and cultivate my personal and professional growth here at GTU.