The MSU Department of Human Development and Family Studies and the MSU Youth Equity Project welcome Dr. Linda Halgunseth as a tenured associate professor to their faculty.
“I was interested in coming to MSU because I was impressed with the HDFS department’s positive climate and leadership, and their genuine attempts to make the department an inclusive educational experience for all – faculty, students and staff,” Dr. Halgunseth said.
She began her role on August 16, 2022, and will be teaching and mentoring undergraduate and graduate students, conducting research, and engaging in serving both local and national communities.
“I will teach Latinx Families this fall semester for undergraduate students and spring for graduate students,” she said. “I enjoy seeing students perspective-take from the viewpoint of families from historically minoritized backgrounds. Also, I truly enjoy when I see students start to understand the link between how they were raised and cultural values, the importance of developing a strong ethnic identity, and the appreciation of culture.”
In addition to her teaching, Dr. Halgunseth will continue her research focus on examining the positive values and parenting practices that immigrant and historically minoritized families use on a daily basis to support their children’s development. Her research and teaching around this focus is important because these values and practices have been underrepresented in research and mainstream parenting classes.
“My research is important because it demonstrates that there is no ‘one-way-fits-all’ way of parenting and highlights the value of many different styles and practices of parenting outside of mainstream U.S. culture,” she said.
She hopes that the future of her research will help children of all cultures and backgrounds in the U.S. to be proud of their cultural upbringing and understand its value.
Dr. Halgunseth comes to MSU from the University of Connecticut, where she has been an associate professor for 10 years in their HDFS department. She holds her doctoral and master’s degrees in HDFS from the University of Missouri, Columbia and her bachelor’s degree in Psychology and Spanish from the University of Texas at Austin.
One fact about Dr. Halgunseth is that she is half Mexican (mother) and half Norwegian (father).
“Originally, I was born in Bridgewater, MA and moved to Texas my senior year of high school,” she said. “After graduate school, I moved to Washington DC to work in the Office of Applied Research at NAEYC. I then returned to academia because I missed conducting my own independent research on parenting, and worked at Penn State (fixed term Research Associate) and then UConn in a Tenure Track position.”
Dr. Halgunseth has always been interested in parent-child relationship research. She knew she wanted to understand parenting and the ways it supports children’s development. But she says it wasn’t until graduate school that she realized the important role of context and culture when understanding parenting, parent-child interactions, and child development.
“We are delighted to welcome Dr. Halgunseth to our department and she brings a vital background to our department in research, teaching and outreach, especially with people who have been historically minoritized,” Dr. Adrian Blow, chair of MSU HDFS, said.
To learn more about the MSU Department of Human Development and Family Studies, visit hdfs.msu.edu.
By Katie Rose Frey