College of Education and Human Development

Center for the Study of Lives

The Director

Robert Atkinson, Ph.D. (University of Pennsylvania), founded the Center for the Study of Lives in 1988 and has been its director since then. His doctoral training is in cross-cultural human development, and he has master's degrees in both folk culture and counseling. He teaches human development and multiculturalism courses for the counseling, school psychology, and adult education master's degree programs in the Human Resource Development Department, and is a core faculty member in the Russell Scholars Program. His primary interests are in the narrative study of lives, the methodology and interpretation of the life story interview, and cultural influences on life span development. He is the author of The Life Story Interview (Sage, 1998), The Gift of Stories: Practical and Spiritual Applications of Autobiography, Life Stories and Personal Mythmaking (Greenwood Press, 1995), the co-editor of Celebrating the Lives of Students: The Life Stories of Five Maine Teenagers (USM/CSL, 1990), and the co-author of The Teenage World: Adolescent Self-Image in Ten Countries (Plenum, 1987). He has also written for many journals, magazines, and encyclopedias, including Audubon, Psychology Today, and Encyclopedia Britannica. Due for release early next year is his collaboration with Babatunde Olatunji, the African drummer, on his autobiography. His other interests are experiential education, sailing, traveling, and merging these all together.