Home: Taos/Tilburg PhD Program : The Educational Program and Faculty

The Educational Program

The Taos/Tilburg Program is intended primarily for seasoned professionals who have already completed a Masters Degree. The program does not require a full-time commitment; it is anticipated that the participant would continue to carry on full-time employment at his/her current location. Optimally, participation in the degree program would make use of the participant's ongoing work experiences, and contribute to a continuing enhancement of his/her work-place capabilities.

In principle, the program of study, research and writing may be completed within a two year period. However, most students find that three years offers a more comfortable pace of work. During these years the participant will work closely with a Faculty Advisor. The advisor is typically, though not necessarily, a Board Member or an Associate of the Taos Institute. Prior to embarking on the first year of study, students will typically work with their potential advisor to develop a mutually acceptable vision of the dissertation research. Thus, it is anticipated that students in the first year of study will explore the scholarly literature relevant to their research, and to make significant progress in their research. During this year the student will also 1) meet with the faculty and students participating in the program, and 2) attend a two-day workshop on social constructionist theory and practice.

It should be noted that there are no formal courses or classes. The program is built on the European model that presumes a student entering with a Masters degree has broad preparation in the social sciences. Thus, all study within the program will link existing knowledge bases to the individual's particular focus of study.

The second and possibly third year of study are focused on completing the research and writing the dissertation . The dissertation is the primary requirement for completing the degree. As the degree is formally granted by Tilburg University, a committee of the university will ultimately judge its adequacy. The concluding event in the program is an oral "defense" of the dissertation before this committee at Tilburg University. Participants in this event are in full academic and/or formal attire, and the event is open to the family and friends of the candidate.

During each year there are two 6-month semesters. The Fall semester begins on September 1, and the Spring semester on March 1. All students will enter the program at the beginning of one of these semesters. 

In certain cases, two candidates have been allowed to work together to generate the final dissertation. 

Communication between students and advisors will take place primarily through the internet, telephone and the mail. However, it is anticipated and customary that the student will meet with the advisor at the beginning of the first year of the program, and at least twice a year afterwards. For some students this may entail visits to the Netherlands. However, both Profs. Rijsman and Hosking also make periodic visits to the US, during which time they may be available for consultation. Success in the program is vitally dependent on "self-starting" capacities of the student.

Faculty

The faculty for this program includes outstanding scholars from universities both in Europe and the U.S. Each student in the program works closely with one of these scholars. The assigned advisor will be provide guidance and support from the early stages of planning to the final completion of the dissertation. In some cases, depending on geography and/or special needs, a secondary advisor will be assigned to assist the student. Although new faculty advisors may be appointed at any time, the current advisors include:

»» Dr. Harlene Anderson
Harlene Anderson, Ph.D., is founding member of the Houston Galveston Institute, the Taos Institute, and Access Success. She is recognized internationally as being at the leading edge of postmodern collaborative practices as a thinker, consultant, coach, and educator. She takes her tools -- her insights, her curiosity, her engaging conversational style, her leadership skills and her keen interest -- to help professionals turn theory into new and often surprising possibilities for their clients, students, and organizations. She embodies her own belief in learning as a lifelong process -- inviting, encouraging and challenging people to be inquisitive, creative, authentic, and open to the ever-present possibilities for newness in others -- and in themselves.

Harlene has authored and co-authored numerous professional writings including her book Conversation, Language, and Possibilities -- A Postmodern Approach to Therapy. She is a member of the editorial review boards of several journals, has presented at numerous national and international conferences and has consulted with a variety of organizations.

»»Frank Barrett, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Management and Organization Behavior in the Department of Systems Management at the Naval Post Graduate Academy. He is also a faculty member of the Human and Organizational Development Program at Fielding Institute. Frank's professional interests and expertise lie in Appreciative Inquiry, improvisation and organizational innovation, organizational learning, spiritual development, social impact of information technology and information revolution, global studies. He is a consultant to organizations in profit, non-profit, and governmental sectors. He has written and lectured widely on social constructionism, appreciative inquiry, organizational change, jazz improvisation and organizational learning. He has published articles on metaphor, masculinity, improvisation, organizational change and organizational development in the Journal of Applied Behavioral Science; Human Relations; Organization Science, and Organizational Dynamics as well as numerous book chapters. He wrote "Generative Metaphor Intervention: A New Approach to Inter-group Conflict" (with D. Cooperrider) which won the award for best paper from the Organizational Development Division of the Academy of Management in 1988. Frank was co-author of a paper that won the best paper award in the Organizational Development and Change Division of the Academy of Management in 2003. The paper was titled, "Planning on Spontaneity: Lessons from Jazz for a Democratic Theory of Change". He is co-editor of Appreciative Inquiry and Organizational Transformation (Vermont: Greenwood Books, 2001). Frank is also an active jazz pianist. In addition to leading his own trios and quartets, he has traveled extensively in the United States, England, and Mexico with the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra.
          

Contact information:
Associate Professor of Management and Organizational Behavior
Department of Systems Management
Naval Post Graduate Academy
555 Dyer Rd
Monterey, California 93943
phone: 831-656-2328
email: fbarrett@cruzio.com
Faculty Member, Human and Organizational Development Program, Fielding Institute at www.fielding.edu
Websites: http://www.nps.navy.mil/cpc/director.htm, Human and Organizational Development Program, Fielding Institute at http://www.fielding.edu/hod/faculty/barrett.htm

»» Professor Kenneth Gergen
Kenneth Gergen is a Senior Research Professor at Swarthmore College, Swarthmore, PA. He also holds a professorship of social science at Tilburg University. He is a leading figure in the development of constructionist thought. Among his major books are, Realities and Relationships (Harvard University Press, 1994), An Invitation to Social Construction (Sage, 1999), The Saturated Self (2nd. ed., Perseus Books, 2001), and Therapeutic Realities (Taos Institute Publications, 2006). Professor Gergen has received many awards and honors for his work, including an honorary degree at Tilburg University. He is President of the Board of the Taos Institute.

»» Professor Mary Gergen
Mary Gergen is Emeritus Professor at Penn State University (Delaware County). She is a founder and board member of the Taos Institute, as well as a dissertation adviser for the Taos/Tilburg PhD program. After receiving her PhD at Temple University, she became a professor at Penn State University. Her primary professional interest has been in exploring the relationship between social constructionism and feminist theory, and her latest book is Feminist Reconstructions in Psychology: Narrative, Gender and Performance (Sage, 2001). She has also edited Feminist Thought and the Structure of Knowledge (1988), and A New Psychology of Gender: A Reader (1997) with Sara N. Davis. With Kenneth J. Gergen, she has co-authored Social Construction: Entering the Dialogue (Taos Institute Publications, 2004), and co-edited Social Construction, A Reader (Sage, 2003). With her husband she also edits the the electronic newsletter Positive Aging.

»» Professor Dian Marie Hosking
Dian Marie Hosking is Professor of Relational Processes in Utrecht School of Governance (USBO) at Utrecht University. She is also a member of the Advisory Board of the Taos Institute. Prior to joining the faculty at the University of Utrecht, Hosking taught at Tilburg University (Professsor of Development and Change) and the University of Aston School of Business in the UK. She has published six books including A Social Psychology of Organising (with Ian Morley), Relational Approaches to Management and Organisation (edited with Peter Dachler and Ken Gergen) and The Social Construction of Organisation (edited with Sheila McNamee, 2006). She is a frequent contributor to journals in management and organisation, runs workshops (mostly in Europe) on relational constructionist approaches to inquiry, development and change, and helps out with doctoral programmes in a number of different university and inter-university institutions.

»» Alexander J.J.A. Maas, Ph.D.
Professor of the Humanitas endowed Chair in Humanising of Care at the University for Humanistics (UvH) in Utrecht (Netherlands). Besides, he is Associate Professor of Organisational Change and Social Integration at the Rotterdam School of Management of the Erasmus University Rotterdam (RSM/EUR, Netherlands).
Alexander did his BA Sociology in Tilburg, his MSc. Business Administration in Delft, and his PhD in Organisation Studies at Erasmus University Rotterdam. He has published and (co-) edited a dozen of books (in Dutch) and articles, in English as well as in Dutch journals, in the fields of Organisation Studies and Change Studies. Social constructionism, organizational theory, change theory are his primary research interests.
His current research and practice interest include storytelling, and changes & innovations in the life and care of older people. Besides, Alexander is an active member of MOPAN, the international research forum for multi organisational partnerships and networks. He love to teach in various graduate (Business Administration, Change) and post-graduate programmes (Information Documentation Management, Public Controlling, and Executive Change Management). His (MA) course titles of interest are: Theories on Change – Differences and Similarities, Cross-Cultural Management Euro-India Relationships (at EUR), Introduction to Organization, Change & Intervention (at UvH). He is and has been active as consultant, reflective practitioner as well as mediator in actual change processes in the public and private domain in the Netherlands. Finally, Alexander has three wonderful children (Stephanie, Robin-Paul and Alexander jr.) and is married to Kitty de Hey.

Contact Information:
University for Humanistics
Contact address:
Van Asch van Wijkskade 28
NL 3512 VS Utrecht           
tel.: +31 30 239 01 05
fax: +31 30 239 01 70
e-mail: ajja.maas@uvh.nl
http://www.uvh.nl

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»» Dr. Imelda McCarthy
Imelda McCarthy PhD is a Senior Lecturer at the School of Applied Social Science, University College Dublin. She is also a founder and registered therapist/supervisor with the Family Therapy Association of Ireland. Her participation on international editorial boards includes, Human Systems, The Journal of Family Therapy and The International Journal of Community Work and Narrative Therapy. From 1980-1995 she was a member of the Fifth Province Associates whose work together with her own has been translated into 8 languages. She is currently the programme director of the Co-Creative Counselling and Therapy Programme at the Blue Star Centres in Trinidad and Ottawa. Her edited book with Carmel Flaskas and Jim Sheehan, Hope and Despair in Family Therapy: reflections on adversity, resilience and forgiveness is in press with Routledge (London).

»» Professor Sheila McNamee
Sheila McNamee, Ph.D., is Professor of Communication at the University of New Hampshire. She is a founder and Board Member of the Taos Institute. Her work is focused on dialogic transformation within a variety of social and institutional contexts including psychotherapy, organizations, education, healthcare, and local communities. She is author of Relational Responsibility: Resources for Sustainable Dialogue, with Kenneth Gergen (Sage, 1999). Other books include Therapy as Social Construction, with Kenneth Gergen (Sage, 1992), Philosophy in Therapy: The Social Poetics of Therapeutic Conversation, with Klaus Deissler (Carl Auer Systeme Verlag, 2000), The Appreciative Organization, with her co-founders of the Taos Institute (Taos Institute, 2001) and The Social Construction of Organisation with Dian Marie Hosking (Liber and Copenhagen Business School Press, 2005). Professor McNamee has also authored numerous articles and chapters on social constructionist theory and practice. She actively engages constructionist practices in a variety of contexts to bring conflicting communities together to create livable futures. Professor McNamee lectures and consults regularly, both nationally and internationally, for universities, private institutes, organizations, and communities.

»» Professor John Rijsman
Professor John Rijsman, an Associate of the Taos Institute, and member of the Psychology Department at Tilburg University, has been an active and creative contributor to social constructionist thought and its applications to organizational efficacy for over a decade. He is the past editor of the European Journal of Social Psychology, frequently consults with business and government organizations, and has served as the dissertation advisor for numerous organizational professionals both European and American.

»» Sallyann Roth, LICSW, MSW,
Former Co-director of the Family Institute of Cambridge for over 16 years, taught for many years in the graduate programs in social work at both Smith and Simmons Colleges and co-developed and teaches in FIC's Program in Narrative Therapies. A member of the Public Conversations Project (PCP) since its inception, she has presented PCP's work and her therapeutic work widely in the US and abroad. She consults to the interpersonal skills component of the Harvard Negotiation Project at Harvard Law School, consults with and provides training to organizations, and maintains a clinical practice.
Her published work has focused on narrative inquiry, communication issues, couple therapy, and the work of PCP. Common to all of her work is a commitment to design, cultivate, and support ways for people who have been disconnected to connect through finding ways to speak what has seemed too difficult to speak and through hearing what has been difficult to hear. Her current writing and training focus on working to engender and facilitate inner and outer dialogue (encouraging a deeply experienced connection with sometimes censored dialogues and freshly emerging ones), the discovery of choice where none was apparent, and helping people work toward their constructive enduring purposes. She is on the editorial boards of Family Process, The International Journal of Narrative Therapy and Community Work, and Sistemas Familiares.

Contact information:
137 Brooks Street
Medford, MA 02155
phone: 781-391-0620
fax: 781-396-9280
email: sroth@world.std.com
Public Conversations Project: www.publicconversations.org

»» Marjorie Schiller, Ph.D., has been consulting, teaching and writing about Appreciative Inquiry since the late 1980's. Her current passion is in using AI to support strength based approaches and methods in schools. She teaches and writes about Appreciative Leadership, AI in Action and Imagine Inclusion: An expansive approach to diversity. She is the co-author of Appreciative Leaders: In the Eye of the Beholder (a Taos Institute Focus Book) and has written commentaries and book chapters about question construction, diversity, gender and appreciative inquiry. She is the Executive Director of The Positive Change Corps: A global community serving education and youth. Marge has taught at Boston University, Harvard University, and University of Massachusetts, Amherst as well as the Federal Executive Institute, Charlottesville, VA, and Roffey Park West, Sussex, England.

Contact information:
1057 Hillsboro Mile
Hillsboro Beach, FL 33062
Phone: 954-788-3009
email: margeschiller@yahoo.com
and winter address:
49 Rockwood Road
Hingham, MA 02043
Phone: 781-749-4373

»» Tom Strong
A psychologist and counsellor-educator with the Division of Applied Psychology at the University of Calgary. Until recently Tom practiced social constructionist, or discursive, approaches to therapy in northwestern British Columbia but his curiosity and love of ideas related to collaborative change overtook him. His research and writing now focuses on the collaborative and ethical potentials and practicalities he sees afforded by discursive approaches to psychotherapy. Co-editor (with David Paré) of the recent book "Furthering Talk: Advances in the Discursive Therapies" (Kluwer Academic/Plenum), editorial board member with the Journal of Systemic Therapies and New Therapist, Tom also teaches with Massey University's (New Zealand) online Postgraduate Program in Discursive Therapies. For more information on Tom's work and affiliations please consult his website at: http://www.acs.ucalgary.ca/~strongt or contact him directly.
Contact Information:
Chartered Psychologist
Division of Applied Psychology
Faculty of Education
University of Calgary
2500 University Drive NW
Calgary, Alberta, Canada T2N 1N4
e-mail: strongt@ucalgary.ca

»» Sally St. George, PhD, is an
Associate Professor in the Faculty of Social Work at the University of Calgary. Sally teaches marriage and family therapy and social work courses and supervises students who are in a field practicum. She is also a therapist and supervisor with the Calgary Family Therapy Centre at the University of Calgary. Sally is extremely dedicated to studying and improving teaching methods in higher education. In addition to teaching, she is interested in examining people's difficulties through the lenses of grand social narratives. She is also a Co-Editor of The Qualitative Report, http://www.nova.edu/ssss/QR/index.html, a free online journal dedicated to publishing creative and well-done qualitative research from all disciplines across the world. In this position, Sally reviews and edits manuscript submissions by joining with reviewers and authors in creating a positive and generative learning community. Sally is interested in researching alternative ways to fund "family work as community work," that is, accountable practices without the constraints of an external funder. This dovetails with her service on the Advisory Board for the Global Partnership for Transformative Social Work in which Sally joins other colleagues in educating, researching, and practicing for greater social justice locally and globally.

Contact Information:
University of Calgary
2500 University Drive NW
Calgary, AB, Canada T2N 1N4
Phone: 403.450.3666 (home)
Email: calgary_home@shaw.ca (home)

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»» Tojo Thatchenkery Ph.D. in Organizational Behavior,
Weatherhead School of Management, Case Western Reserve University
A professor of organizational learning & knowledge management at George Mason University, Fairfax, Virginia, U.S.A. He has over twenty years of experience in teaching at various MBA, Public Policy, Organizational Development, and executive programs in the United States, Europe, Australia, and Asia. Professor Thatchenkery founded the Organizational Learning Laboratory at the George W. Johnson Learning Center at George Mason University and served as its director from 1995 to 2000.
Professor Thatchenkery has extensive consulting experience with knowledge management, organization design, change management, and various aspects of human resources management. Past clients include the IBM, Fannie Mae, Booz/Allen/Hamilton, Lucent Technologies, General Mills, British Petroleum, the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, United States Department of Agriculture, and the Environmental Protection Agency. He has also developed subject matter expertise in helping Asian Americans and other minority groups leverage their human and social capital for organizational mobility and has worked with several Fortune 100 companies and federal agencies on this issue.
Professor Thatchenkery is on the editorial board of the Journal of Applied Behavioral Sciences and the Journal of Organizational Change Management. He is also the book review editor for the Journal of Organizational Change Management. Professor Thatchenkery has over 30 refereed publications on topics such as postmodern management, organizational learning, change management, knowledge management, and organizational diversity. His current research interests include Information Communication Technology (ICT) and economic development of South East and South Asian countries, social capital and organizational mobility of Asian Americans, appreciative inquiry and hermeneutics as methodologies for understanding organizational change, and facilitative strategies for knowledge management.

Contact Information:
Program Chair, Research Methods Division, Academy of Management
Associate Professor of Organizational Learning
School of Public Policy
George Mason University, MS 4B6
4400 University Drive
Fairfax, VA 22030-4444
phone: 703-993-3808
fax: 703-993-3788
email: thatchen@gmu.edu
website: http://www.gmu.edu/

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»» Diana Whitney, Ph.D.
Founder and President of Corporation for Positive Change and a Founder and Board Member Emeritus of the Taos Institute. Diana is an internationally recognized consultant, speaker, and thought leader on the subjects of Appreciative Inquiry, positive change, and spirituality at work.
She is the author or editor of five books and dozens of articles, and chapters including Appreciative Inquiry Handbook (with David Cooperrider and Jackie Stavros), The Appreciative Inquiry Summit (with James Ludema, Bernard Mohr and Thomas Griffin) and The Power of Appreciative Inquiry (with Amanda Trosten-Bloom). In addition, she has edited three collections on Appreciative Inquiry including: Appreciative Inquiry and Organization Transformation, and Appreciative Inquiry: Rethinking Human Organization Toward a Positive Theory of Change.
Diana teaches and consults in the Americas, Europe, and Asia. She has lectured and taught at Antioch University, Case Western Reserve University, Ashridge Management Institute in London, Saybrook University, Eisher Institute in India and others. The focus of Diana's consulting is strategic planning, mergers, large-scale transformation, and service excellence. Her clients include British Airways, Hunter Douglas, Cap Gemini Ernst & Young, Accenture, GTE-Verizon, GE Capitol, Johnson & Johnson, Sandia National Labs, NY Power Authority, PECO, Veterans Affairs, and the Department of Labor. Her work with GTE led to the 1997 Best Organization Change Award by ASTD. Diana serves as a consultant to the United Religions Initiative, a global interfaith organization dedicated to peace and cooperation among people of different religions, faiths, and spiritual traditions.

Contact Information:
621 Damascus Church Road
Chapel Hill, NC 27516
Phone: 919-942-6832
email: positivechange1@aol.com or diana@positivechange.org.
Website: http://www.corporationforpositivechange.com

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»» Dan Wulff , Ph.D.
An Associate Professor in the Faculty of Social Work and family therapist/supervisor in the Calgary Family Therapy Centre at the University of Calgary. He works to integrate the professions the family therapy and social work in his classes, in publications/presentations, in program development, and in practice. Dan also serves on the Advisory Board for the Global Partnership for Transformative Social Work, an international organization focused on education, research, and practices that support social justice locally and globally. Dan has a passion for qualitative inquiry, particularly the more participatory forms. He is Co-Editor of The Qualitative Report (http://www.nova.edu/ssss/QR/index.html), an open-access online journal dedicated to publishing creative and well-done qualitative research in all disciplines worldwide. In practice, research, and teaching endeavors, Dan enjoys the improvisational, the artistic, and the relational.

Contact Information:
University of Calgary
2500 University Drive NW
Calgary, AB, Canada T2N 1N4
Phone: 403.450.3666 (home)
Email: calgary_home@shaw.ca (home)

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