Lori Koelsch

I am an Associate Professor of Psychology, Director of Undergraduate Programs, Undergraduate Internship Coordinator, and Graduate Teaching Mentor in the Department of Psychology at Duquesne University. I graduated with my B.A. in Psychology from Rutgers University and earned my M.A. and Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from Miami University (Ohio). My education and training were theoretically pluralistic, and I am lucky to have learned from psychological traditions such as those rooted in feminism, postmodernism, archetypal psychology, and psychoanalysis.

My primary research and theoretical interests include qualitative inquiry, gender, and sexual experiences/violence. I am fascinated by research methodology and my work has explored epistemological questions such as: How can we know?, What can we know?, and How can research help us understand the experiences of others? I have a particular interest and expertise in poetic inquiry and feminist qualitative research (especially The Listening Guide), and seek to engage in research that amplifies the voices of underrepresented groups and individuals. I also engage in research and administrative work with the goal of working towards equity for students and faculty/staff who are members of underrepresented groups, with a focus on gender equity.

I mentor both graduate and undergraduate student research, and particularly enjoy working with students who are seeking to engage in creative and novel qualitative research. I include student co-authors on my publications and presentations whenever possible. In addition to working with students on their independent projects, I typically teach the first-year graduate seminar Introduction to Qualitative and Interpretative Research and the courses Supervised Teaching of Psychology I and II. At the undergraduate level, I typically teach Internship in Psychology and Orientation to the Psychology Major. I have also taught undergraduate sections of Research Methods in Psychology and Psychology of Personality here at Duquesne.

I am a licensed psychologist in the state of Pennsylvania, and while I am not actively engaged in clinical work at this time, I provide clinical supervision for graduate students in our doctoral program. My supervision style is process oriented, and it developed in tandem with my training in interpersonal psychotherapy (from the psychoanalytic tradition). I also have an interest in archetypal psychology and encourage my supervisees to explore metaphor, dreams, and other aspects of the imaginal in their clinical work.

Expertise
• Qualitative Inquiry
• Poetic Inquiry
• Feminist Psychology
• Gender

Education