Dr. Gergen is Professor Emerita at Penn State University, Brandywine, in the Philadelphia area. She has taught courses in many subfields in psychology and in Women's Studies. Her major academic focus has been on social constructionist theory and feminism. Currently she is an officer in the Taos Institute, a non-profit educational organization. She also advises Ph.D. students in applied social science fields. Her work has taken her to many countries around the glove, most recently Nanjing, China. Recent collaborators include Kenneth J. Gergen and Ellen Cole.
Feminist Reconstructions in Psychology introduces a distinctive new mode in doing psychology. This psychology is based on an increasingly popular range of ideas called social constructionism. Within the book, new forms of theory and methods of inquiry relating social constructionism to feminist topics are introduced. Each chapter highlights different topics of special concern within gender studies, especially the psychology of women. The book draws from the central tenets of postmodern inquiry, as played out in the positive framework of social constructionism. Emphasized are reflexivity, the social basis of reality making, the breakdown of traditional narrative forms, the loss of objectivity as a scientific standard, and the possibilities for new forms of doing research. In this respect, the book is unique and serves to provide a point of view on an intriguing movement that is gaining momentum across the social sciences and humanities.
