Positive Aging Newsletter Editors
Kenneth J. Gergen, Ph.D.
Email: kgergen1@swarthmore.edu; website: http://www.swarthmore.edu/SocSci/kgergen1
Kenneth Gergen is a founding member and Board President of the Taos Institute, and Senior Research Professor at Swarthmore College. He also serves as an Affiliate Professor at Tilburg University in the Netherlands, and an Honorary Professor at the University of Buenos Aires. Gergen received his BA from Yale University and his PhD from Duke University, and has taught at Harvard University and Heidelberg University. He has been the recipient of two Fulbright research fellowships, the Geraldine Mao fellowship in Hong Kong, along with Fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the Japanese Society for the Promotion of Science, and the Alexander Humboldt Stiftung. Gergen has also been the recipient of research grants from the National Science Foundation, the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, and the Barra Foundation. He has received honorary degrees from Tilburg University, Saybrook Institute, and the University of Athens, and is a member of the World Academy of Art and Science.
Gergen is a major figure in the development of social constructionist theory and its applications to practices of social change. He also lectures widely on contemporary issues in cultural life, including the self, technology, postmodernism, the civil society, organizational change, developments in psychotherapy, educational practices, aging, and political conflict. Gergen has published over 300 articles in journals, magazines and books, and his major books include Toward Transformation in Social Knowledge, The Saturated Self, Realities and Relationships, and An Invitation to Social Construction. With Mary Gergen, he publishes an electronic newsletter, Positive Aging (http://www.positiveaging.net) now distributed to 20,000 recipients.
Gergen has served as the President of two divisions of the American Psychological Association, the Division on Theoretical and Philosophical Psychology, and on Psychology and the Arts. He has served on the editorial board of 35 journals, and as the Associate Editor of The American Psychologist and Theory and Psychology. He has also served as a consultant to Sandoz Pharmaceutical Company, Arthur D. Little, Inc, the National Academy of Science, Bio-Dynamics, and Knight, Gladieux & Smith, Inc.
Mary GergenMary M. Gergen, Ph.D.
Email: GV4@psu.edu; website: http://mary.gergen.socialpsychology.org/
Mary M. Gergen is a founder and Board member of the Taos Institute and Professor-Emerita of Psychology and Women's Studies, Pennsylvania State University, Delaware County, Media, PA. Her books include: Toward a New Psychology of Gender, 1997,edited with Sara N. Davis; Feminist Reconstructions in Psychology, Narrative, Gender & Performance, 2001; Social Constructionism: A Reader, 2003, edited with K. J. Gergen, and Social Construction, Entering the dialogue with K. J. Gergen, 2004. She has edited and contributed to The Appreciative Organization, 2nd edition from Taos Institute Publications, 2007. Among her earlier publications is Feminist Thought and the Structure of Knowledge, as well as many articles and chapters on gender, narratives, and feminist theory. Since 1989 she has been involved in performative activities, including monologues and non-traditional forms of writing and presenting.
With Kenneth Gergen, she publishes this electronic newsletter on Positive Aging (http://www.positiveaging.net) now distributed to 20,000 recipients. The newsletter is also available in Spanish, French and German. To subscribe, email Mary. She and Kenneth Gergen also present workshops in positive aging and social construction at home and abroad.