
Leah Dickens joined the Kenyon faculty in 2017, after receiving her doctorate from Northeastern University in 2015 and teaching as a visiting professor at Mount Holyoke and Bowdoin Colleges. As a social psychologist specializing in the functions of emotions in everyday life, Dickens’s work extends beyond the positive/negative dichotomy of affect to investigate the nuanced complexity of emotional experience. Emotions are complicated! Her current research centers on pride and gratitude — two positive emotions that are adaptive to experience but also heavily influenced by social norms in terms of their expression. How are we perceived when we express our pride? How do we perceive others when they express their gratitude? What factors alter these perceptions, in positive and negative ways?
Dickens teaches courses in social psychology, environmental psychology, emotions and positive psychology — the psychology of “the good life.” She was voted to give the Baccalaureate address in 2022 and won the Junior Trustee Teaching Excellence Award in 2023.
Dickens lives in Gambier with her husband, daughter and accidental cat. When she's not teaching, researching or badgering people about emotions, she likes to garden, buy new houseplants, go on walks, have long conversations, and do various arts & crafts projects.
Areas of Expertise
Social psychology, positive psychology, emotions
Education
2015 — Doctor of Philosophy from Northeastern University
2012 — Master of Arts from Northeastern University
2009 — Bachelor of Arts from Connecticut College, summa cum laude