Communication Disorders and Counseling, School, and Educational Psychology

EDUCATION AND SCHOOL PSYCHOLOGGY

Linda Sperry, Ph.D.

Linda Sperry
Office: UH 303B

Phone: (812) 237-7786  

Fax: (812) 237-7613 

E-mail: linda.sperry@indstate.edu

 

 

 

Education: Ph.D., University of Chicago (Developmental Psychology, 1991)  

M.S., University of Pennsylvania (Educational Linguistics, 1985)

B.A. in Spanish, B.S. in Biology from Nebraska Wesleyan University, 1980 (both degrees awarded summa cum laude)

Research Interests:  Emergent literacy, development of self, early representational thought, parent-child interaction

Classes Taught:

  • EPSY 202 (Psychology of Childhood and Adolescence)
  • EPSY 341 (Education in a Multicultural Society)
  • EPSY 342 (Growth and Development of the Young Child)
  • EPSY 421 (Advanced Child Psychology)
  • EPSY 422 (Psychology of Adolescence); ELED 495 (Special Topics in Developmental Psychology)
  • EPSY 521 (Advanced Child Psychology-Graduate Course)
  • EPSY 522 (Psychology of Adolescence-Graduate Course)
  • EPSY 595 (Development through the Lifespan-Graduate Course)
  • EPSY 623 (Adult Development-Graduate Course)
  • EPSY 699 (Master's Thesis)
  • EPSY 711 (Advanced Qualitative Methods and Inquiry-Graduate Course)
  • EPSY 721 (Seminar in Human Development-Graduate Course)
  • EPSY 885 (Practicum in College Teaching
  • EPSY 899 (Dissertation) 

Recent Presentations/Publications:

Sperry, L. L., Floress, M. T., Gile, B. N., Renn, J., & Sperry, E. D. (2005, June). Everyday discordant interactions in African-American families. Poster presented at the annual meetings of the Conference on Ethnographic and Qualitative Research in Education, Cedarville, Ohio.

Miller, P.J., Hengst, J., Alexander, K., & Sperry, L.L., (2000). Versions of personal storytelling: Genres as tools for creating alternate realities. In Rosengren, K.S., Johnson, C.N., & Harris, P.L. (Eds.). Imagining the impossible: The development of magical, scientific, and religious thinking in contemporary society (pp. 212-246). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Sperry, L. L., & Sperry, D. E. (2000). Verbal and nonverbal contributions to early representation: Evidence from African‑American toddlers. In N. Budwig, I. C. Uzgiris, & J. V. Wertsch (Eds.). Communication: An arena of development (pp. 143-165). Norwood, NJ: Ablex.   

Sperry, L. L., Floress, M. T., Gile, B. N., Renn, J., & Sperry, E. D. (under review). Everyday discordant interactions in African-American families. In Brewer, P., & Firmin, M. (Eds)., Proceedings of the 2005 Conference on Ethnographic and Qualitative Research in Education. Cambridge, England: Cambridge Press.

Grants and Fellowships

National Endowment for the Humanities, "The Foundations of Democracy in Public Schools: Building a Pedagogy of Pluralism," (with Sharon V. Andrews and Thomas J. Derrick), 1996-97, $135,000.

National Academy of Education/Spencer Foundation Post‑Doctoral Fellowship, “Fear, Fantasy, and Power in an African-American Community: Consequences for the Development of Representational Thought,” 1997-98, $40,000.

Dr. Sperry is married with two children.  She enjoys traveling, playing piano and violin, and gardening.