Interview with Kymberly Richard, Psychology Department, Plymouth State University
When I started the spring semester of my junior year, I had only just figured out exactly what I wanted to get out of my college degree, and subsequently spent the first week of classes rearranging which courses I would take. As an IDS major, I started working on building my major, which includes picking out all of the classes for my major and picking two advisors to ensure that my program made sense. As a transfer student and an interdisciplinary student who had been bouncing around departments, I didn’t know many faculty members very well and therefore was at a loss for who to ask to be a content advisor for my program. At the time, I would have said that landing in Professor Richard’s Psychology and Law class was a complete accident- it just happened to fit in my schedule and it seemed interesting enough, so I just went with it. After going to her class once, I quickly realized that this course happened to be a perfect fit for the major I was creating, and that Professor Richard would be a great advisor for the psychology aspect of my program. She has a no excuses, take charge kind of energy in her classroom and it is not hard to see the passion that she has for what she teaches as well as for her students. When I interviewed her, those characteristics were obvious again as she gave me intelligent, well thought out answers to all of my questions.
Because this field can be very emotionally taxing and all around difficult to deal with, I am always interested on why people choose it- and what makes them stay. For Dr. Richard, growing up with domestic violence peaked her interest in victimology, and having a personal connection to a family involved in crime made her want to know more about battered woman syndrome. It was obvious from this interview and from lectures that she has a passion for helping others and for justice.
During our interview, I was immediately impressed by all of the work Dr. Richard has done in several different fields. A graduate of Northeastern and Harvard, she holds degrees in criminology, psychology (focusing in abnormal psychology) and higher education and has worked as a special agent, an advocate for abused women, and has taught in prisons as well as at the collegiate level among other things.
Currently, Dr. Richard is a professor at Plymouth State teaching social psychology, psychology and law (which I am taking), introduction to psychology and psychology seminar. She is also doing work with researching concerning the bettering of pre-interrogation interviews.
When we began to discuss interdisciplinary studies, I was surprised to hear how similar our beliefs about interdisciplinary work are. Like me, Dr. Richard believes that psychology is an important foundation for every person and can be applied to many, many different fields. She believes that all students should take introduction to psychology as well as social psychology, because it is important for everyone to “gain an understanding of yourself and your place in the world.” According to her, being knowledgeable in the field of psychology is the best vehicle to understanding yourself. She is also of the belief that interdisciplinary work is important for gaining a well rounded perspective, being open minded and for developing your own views and ideas. One of the reasons that I chose to interview her is that a lot of her career has been applying her knowledge of psychology in a criminological or legal setting, so much of what she has done is interdisciplinary work. She frequently works with people who are only involved in one field, but enjoys being interdisciplinary as she has seen how people who stick to one specific field can often become stagnant in what they do.
After talking to Dr. Richard, I feel more confident about how well criminology and psychology go together. At the end of the interview, she gave me a lot of insight on future careers and what it meant to obtain different types of degrees. I am thankful to have such an intelligent, funny and caring advisor who is always willing to answer my questions and give me advice.
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