Awe on the Margins: Youth Perspectives on the (im)possibilities of Human Flourishing
On Wednesday, April 15th, 2026, from 1-1:50 PM in FXB G13 and online, all are welcome to join us for the sixth and final installment in our Virtues for Well-being Seminar Series, featuring Dr. Demond Hill.
Seminar Description
According to scholars, awe (i.e., the emotional response to something vast that transcends our ordinary frame of reference) has the potential to transform perspectives, foster human flourishing, and enhance well-being (Shiota, Keltner, & Mossman, 2007; Monroy & Keltner, 2023; Keltner, 2025). However, little is known about where awe occurs in marginalized urban contexts, who can access it, and how it might serve as a tool to disrupt structural violence. Therefore, this seminar is grounded in the central question: what would it take for “us” to be more honest with the life/lives we are living, living on, stepping over, and forgetting? Drawing from the first year of an ongoing three-year youth-participatory action research (Y-PAR) study with 100 Black and Brown high school students (ages 14–17) at a predominantly Black and Brown school in Boston, MA, this project explores how youth understand, express, and utilize awe and human flourishing for transformative change. Over the course of a year (2025–2026), youth participated in an awe and flourishing literacy program during after-school hours. Students were offered opportunities to experience (e.g., awe excursions), express (e.g., documenting through photo and videovoice, and short stories), and create (e.g., design and implement awe-inspiring places and spaces). This work cultivates skills that counter cumulative stress and persistent trauma while fostering healing and civic engagement. Key questions include: (a) How can awe serve as both a protective factor and a tool for transforming “awe-ful” spaces into “awe-inspiring” ones? and (b) What emerges when young people become creators of awe within their communities? In this seminar, we will examine youth-designed pathways toward health equity, explore the relationship between awe and various emotions (e.g., shame, grief, and joy), and consider how “actionable awe” can mobilize collective efforts toward honest, communal, and transformative change. Through youth perspectives, attendees will engage with practical and theoretical insights on fostering awe and flourishing amid structural violence.
Speaker Biography
Dr. Demond M. Hill is an Assistant Professor of Health Equity at Tufts University in the Eliot-Pearson Department of Child Study and Human Development. His research, grounded in transdisciplinary, critical, applied, humanizing-based approaches, focuses on the mental health and well-being of marginalized children, youth, and families, with a particular emphasis on Black populations. Broadly, his work examines socioeconomic, structural, racial, and environmental factors affecting mental health and well-being, with a focus on persistent trauma and chronic stress. He explores how schools shape and are shaped by daily experiences to advance mental health equity in educational settings and the broader community. Ultimately, Dr. Hill collaborates with communities to promote and protect opportunities for awe, belonging, and human flourishing among Black and Brown communities within systemic inequality. His work centers marginalized communities’ voices and lived experiences and incorporates youth- and community-based participatory action approaches to identify and strengthen protective factors that inform policy and promote mental health equity.
Speaker Information
Dr. Demond Hill
Organizers
ⓘ Harvard Chan School hosts a diverse array of speakers, invited to share both scholarly research and personal perspectives. They do not speak for the School, and hosting them does not imply endorsement of their views, organizations, or employers.