Smith College to Offer a MOOC on the Psychology of Women’s Activism

Smith College, the highly rated liberal arts institution for women in Northampton, Massachusetts, announced that it will offer a massive open online course (MOOC) on the psychology of women’s activism through the edX platform. The course will be taught by Lauren E. Duncan, a professor of psychology at Smith. Professor Duncan has been on the Smith College faculty since 1999. She is a graduate of the University of Southern California, where she majored in economics. She holds a master’s degree and a Ph.D. in personality psychology from the University of Michigan.

The new online course, “Psychology of Political Activism: Women Changing the World,” will begin in March 2016 and run for seven weeks. It is free to all participants. Students who successfully complete the course can purchase a certificate for $49. More information is available here.

Kathleen McCartney, president of Smith College, said that “this class will allow us to contribute to the democratization of knowledge by bringing Smith’s excellent teaching — and our remarkable archives of women’s history — to a worldwide audience through edX’s highly regarded platform. The content will be available to English speakers across the globe, and the lessons of these activists will lead to needed social change.”