Department histories

[Morris, Edward K.]

In light of a recent interest in histories of departments of psycology (n North Amerca), the following article might be of interest: 

      Benjamin, L. T. (1990). Involving students and faculty in preparing a department          history. Teaching of Psychology, 17(2), 97-100.

[Christopher Green]

In Canada, there's a book, History of Academic Psychology in Canada (edited by Mary Wright and Roger Myers, 1982). Wright and Myers found senior people in each of the (longstanding) major psychology departments in the country and persuaded them write a chapter about the origins and early histories of their department. The historiography is often naive; the writing is often overtly celebratory. I would never encourage my students to emulate its style. But I do recommend that my students (working on Canadian topics) read the book (or at least the chapters on the schools in which they are interested) because for names, dates, and the general flow of things, it is unparalleled. Then, starting with those chapters, we head off to the archives already knowing where to start: whose collections to ask for, what major events to suss out (keeping in mind that nastiness has often been elided), which administrators and funders to follow up on. As long as it is used cautiously, it has proven a very useful starting point for my work on U. Toronto and on Jenn Bazar and my work on McGill. I also have an MA student who is now working on the origin and early history of stats teaching in Canadian psychology departments, and that book was one of his starting points. 

Best,

Chris

...........................................

Christopher D Green

Department of Psychology

York University

Toronto, ON M3J 1P3

Canada

chr...@yorku.ca

http://www.yorku.ca/christo

On Mar 30, 2024, at 11:46 AM, 'Dean K Simonton' via SHP Listserv <shp-li...@googlegroups.com> wrote:



Thanks, Ed ~

One worrisome problem for me is how much institutional memory survives by the time someone tries to compile a departmental history. Let me give a specific example from one of the more distinguished departments in the history of psychology - Harvard's.

In 2009 I was invited to deliver a colloquium for Harvard's psychology department. It was my first opportunity to return to where I had received my doctorate in 1975. As always, you do the round of one-and-one talks with faculty and a meeting with graduate students, but I was also given some downtime before my presentation. So I was placed in a seminar room in an upper floor of William James Hall. Typically furnished, with a long rectangular table surrounded by the usual chairs, the room's only distinction was that the walls were completely surrounded by portraits of presumably eminent psychologists from the department's past. I even recognized some, such as the Hall's namesake. Yet when I inquired from several faculty and staff about the identity of the folks so honored, I couldn't find anybody who knew anything, nor knew who might know, and were even surprised that anyone might want to know. Moreover, I tried to track down the seminar room where I took my doctoral orals, which was well-known as Henry Murray's library at the time. Nobody I talked to had any idea where that might have been. I finally figured out that that floor had been completely remodeled, and the room apparently vanished (I hypothesize that Pinker's office was carved out of a portion). Yet, again, nobody could tell me anything - even what happened to Murray's books. I tried to broach the subject later that evening when I was taken out to dinner, but to no avail. After I got home, I did some internet searches to see if I could find any relevant info on Harvard's website, but also to no avail. The William James Hall that was such a major part of my life for four years had ceased to exist. Of course, it may not have helped matters that psychology had undergone a major reorganization, thus undermining any continuity. In my first year in graduate school, Psychology and Social Relations were separate departments, but by the time I earned my PhD they had merged to the Department of Psychology and Social Relations, and shortly after that the Social Relations part was extirpated. Only a few cohorts emerged from the transient merger. 

Hence arises a question: Can anyone tell me where I can find a comprehensive history of psychology at Harvard University? If not, is it even possible to do so now that the institutional memory has dissipated like some early childhood memory?*

~ Best, Dean

*The "official" history at History | Department of Psychology (harvard.edu) is totally inadequate! See for yourself! 

Dean Keith Simonton, PhD

Distinguished Professor Emeritus

Department of Psychology

One Shields Avenue

University of California, Davis

Davis, CA 95616-8686

 

Home Page - https://simonton.faculty.ucdavis.edu/

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From: shp-li...@googlegroups.com <shp-li...@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Morris, Edward K. <e...@ku.edu>
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Subject: [SHP-listserv] Department histories

 

In light of a recent interest in histories of departments of psycology (n North Amerca), the following article might be of interest: 

      Benjamin, L. T. (1990). Involving students and faculty in preparing a department          history. Teaching of Psychology, 17(2), 97-100.

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[Morris, Edward K.]

Chris,

P.S. Kerri Walters and Kendra Thomson wrote "The History of Behavior Analysis in Manitoba: A Sparsely Populated Canadian Province with an International Influence on Behavior Analysis." it was published in The Behavior Analyst, 2014, 13(1), 5-72. Thomson is now at Brock University.

-Ed

---

 

Edward K. Morris, Ph.D. 

Department of Applied Behavioral Science

University of Kansas

4020 Dole Human Development Center

1000 Sunnyside Avenue

Lawrence, KS 66044

 

Office phone: 785.864-0519

ABS phone:   785-864-4840

ABS fax:        785-864-5202

 

 

 

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From: cheiro...@googlegroups.com <cheiro...@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Christopher Green <chr...@yorku.ca>
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Subject: [Cheiron-Forum:3108] Re: [SHP-listserv] Re: Department histories

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