Biographical Information

Wendy Martyna is a Continuing Lecturer in Sociology, teaching a broad range of courses in the field of social psychology. After earning her Ph.D. at Stanford University in 1978, she was an Assistant Professor of Psychology at UCSC for five years, before leaving the tenure track in order to focus on teaching and activism. She has consulted and led workshops nationally and in the U.K. on death and dying, creativity as a response to burnout, as well as poetry and storytelling. Her early research centered on the social psychology of gender (particularly language and the sexes), while her continuing areas of inquiry include death and dying, life in the digital age, and the changing nature of the teaching and the learning process. She has taught at UCSC, Stanford, Cabrillo College, West Valley College, and has been a co-director of several nonprofits, including Children’s Creative Response to Conflict and the Peace Day Project, as well as serving as a board member of the Resource Center for Nonviolence.

Research Interests

The art of educating: The teaching and the learning process
The social psychology of communication in the digital age

Education/Training

1978. Ph.D., Psychology, Stanford University
1973. B.A., Psychology, Minor emphases in Journalism, Speech, Telecommunications, Urban Studies, University of Southern California