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The CREST Research Center

The CREST Research Center (Culture, Religion, Ethics, Science, Technology) at Saint Louis University seeks to integrate humanistic interdisciplinary scholarship with innovations in science and technology for the service of humanity. 

Our Mission

SLU's CREST Research Center for Culture, Religion, Ethics, Science, and Technology seeks to integrate humanistic interdisciplinary scholarship with innovations in science and technology for the service of humanity.

Our mission is to foster interdisciplinary academic and public scholarship, effective teaching, and community building among scholars in the humanities, sciences and technology. Science and technology develop within and powerfully shape social, political and cultural landscapes. CREST promotes rigorous scholarship within and across disciplinary boundaries, fostering spaces to refine and enhance research for the sake of a more just world.

To fulfill this mission, the center:  

  • Gathers an interdisciplinary team of researchers from a wide range of fields in the sciences and humanities to collaborate on a shared project theme related to innovations in science and technology (typically 2-3 years each).  
  • Fosters innovative academic and public scholarship, training in effective teaching, and community building among the humanities, sciences, and technology. 
  • Hosts visiting scholars and bi-annual conferences to foster conversations within and beyond the SLU scholarly community.

2023-2025 CREST Project and the Community of Scholars

The Spatial Turn: Mapping the Terrain of Geospatial Science and the Humanities

GIS is a developing and highly interdisciplinary science that draws on and advances technological innovation. Like many sciences and technologies, GIS can be put to better and worse use. While it can assist scholars of the humanities and the human sciences in their own work, GI scientists also benefit from conversations about the social, historical, political and philosophical frames in which GIS operates.

The Spatial Turn at SLU gathers CREST's Community of Scholars (CS) from theology, religion, philosophy, history, business, art history, law and bioethics to engage with relevant literature, GI scientists, and develop and share their research. CREST is pleased to announce its 2024-2025 cohort of Community of Scholars.

Meet the Community of Scholars

Leadership Team

Jeffrey Bishop Headshot

Jeffrey Bishop
Director of the CREST Research Center 


Emily Dumler Winckler Headshot
Emily Dumler-Winckler
Associate director of the CREST Research Center