Northland College Faculty
Faculty are at the heart of Northland College. Click below to view individual profiles and to learn more about our incredible faculty.
Matthew O'Laughlin
Title: Assistant Professor of Psychology
Office Location: CSE 150
Phone: (715) 682-1284
Email: molaughlin@northland.edu
Education
- Ph.D. Social Psychology, University of Oregon
- M.S. Social Psychology, University of Oregon
- B.A. Psychology & B.A. Social Philosophy, Marquette University
Profile
As an educator I am deeply committed to the specific individuals that join me in the classroom and I teach courses in the spirit of mutual inquiry. In collaboration, my students and I explore the cross-disciplinary borderlands of psychology, creating new courses in ecopsychology, sustainable agriculture, political psychology, and conflict resolution. I pursue a student-centered, participatory approach in the classroom that focuses on creating a personal connection with students.
With each new term I ask myself: how can more student voices shape the classroom experience?, how can more of the responsibility for learning be placed into the hands of the students?, how will students discover and articulate what their own educational priorities, curious whims and deeply important questions are?, and how will students satisfy these priorities, whims, and questions in and outside the classroom?
At base, every class that I teach is intended to facilitate the growth of the individual as a whole person with knowledge, competence, and confidence. As an educator, I bring the knowledge and practices of psychology to this meeting, but I never lose sight that this is a meeting of people. Education develops in relationship.
