Debra Harkins, Ph.D.

Associate Professor of Psychology
B.S., University of Massachusetts-Boston (Psychology and Anthropology); M.A., Ph.D., Clark University (Psychology); Postdoctoral Fellowships, Children’s Hospital/Harvard Medical School.

 

Contact Information

Suffolk University Department of Psychology
41 Temple Street
Boston, MA 02114
Donahue 613
617-305-1926 (Office)
617-67-2924 (Fax)
dharkins@suffolk.edu

 

Courses Taught

PSYCH 346 Community Psychology
PSYCH 408 Senior Seminar: History and Systems of Psychology
PSYCH 729 Social Justice, Race, and Ethnicity

Specialty Areas

Social justice, diversity, empowerment, conflict resolution, teaching, consultation, community and narrative based research.

Members of the action-based empowerment research and consultation project seek to assess the efficacy of using empowerment and process consultation models in multi- cultural, underserved, diverse communities. This project supports organizational and community outreach programs that focus on empowerment, social justice and system learning.  We seek to build collaborations with nonprofit agencies, organizations and communities to reduce violence, foster harmony, and promote social justice. Our project team explores issues of race, homelessness, immigration, social class, gender, and conflict using community, action- and narrative-based research methods. 

Selected Publications

Harkins, DA & Wells, (2009). Critical and discursive teaching in psychology. Pedagogy and the Human Sciences, 1(1): 39-49.    

Mizock, L & Harkins, DA (2009). Relatioship of research attitudes, racial identity and cultural mistrust. American Journal of Psychological Research, 1(5): 31-51.    

Austin, M. & Harkins, DA (2008).  Assessing change:  Can  organizational learning “work” for schools?  The Learning Organization, 15 (2), 105-128.    

Koepke, M. & Harkins, DA (2008). Conflict in the classroom: Gender differences in the teacher-child relationship. Early Education and Development, 19(6): 843-864.

Doppler, E, Harkins, DA, & Mehta, C.  (2008). Emerging Empowerment:  Conflict resolution intervention and preschool teachers’ report of conflict behavior. Early Education & Development, 19(6): 885-906.