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Laura Harrison

Laura Harrison
Department Chair, Counseling and Higher Education and Professor
Counseling and Higher Education
Patton Hall 432A

Dr. Laura M. Harrison chairs the Department of Counseling and Higher Education at Ohio University. She teaches and writes on the topics of advocacy, college student mental health, and rehumanizing higher education. She has written 25 peer-reviewed journal articles/book chapters on these topics in addition to 5 books: Helping College Students Write: A Guide for Educators (Routledge, 2024), Teaching Struggling Students: Lessons Learned from Both Sides of the Classroom (Palgrave Macmillan, 2019), Interrupting Class Inequality in Higher Education: Leadership for an Equitable Future (Routledge, 2017), Alternative Solutions to Higher Education’s Problems: An Appreciative Approach to Reform (Routledge, 2015) and Advancing Social Justice: Tools, Pedagogies, and Strategies to Transform Your Campus (Jossey-Bass, 2013).  Harrison is Co-Editor in Chief of the Journal of College and Character. Before she came to Ohio University in 2011, she served as an Associate Dean of Students at Stanford University. She earned her doctorate in Organizational Leadership from the University of San Francisco in 2006. She is currently working on an edited volume, Rehumanizing Higher Education in the New Directions for Teaching and Learning series, forthcoming in late 2024/early 2025.

Most Recent Publications:

Unangst, L., Harrison, L.M., Bah, S., Balarbe, O.A., & Dunson-Dillard, T. (2023). “Is anybody doing anything?” Policy actors discuss supports for displaced learners at Ohio colleges and universities. Journal of Thought 56, 33-53.

Harrison, L.M. & Mathuews, K.B. (2022). How students experience faculty responses to academic struggle. Journal of College Student Development 63(4), 399-413.

Harrison, L.M., Morgenstern, E., & Angelo, M. (2022). Eliminating the front row: How teaching in the chat fosters student engagement. College Teaching,1-8.

Harrison, L.M. & Mathuews, K.B. (2022). Three priorities for the future of online education. Journal of Thought, 3-16.

Harrison, L.M. & Cumberbatch-Williams, H. (2021). Challenging students to engage meaningfully across ideological differences. Journal of Transformative Education, 1-15.

Harrison, L.M. & Scott, M. (2020). Considerations for meaningful assessment during COVID-19. Intersection: A Journal at the Intersection of Assessment and Learning, 2(1), 1-3.

Harrison, L.M. & Mather, P. (2020). Enlightened in loco parentis: A model for addressing the student mental health crisis. In P. Blessinger (Ed.) Humanizing higher education: International perspectives on improving classroom engagement and international development programs. (pp. 45-59). Emerald Group Publishing.

Harper, D. & Harrison, L.M. (2020). Ethical leadership in higher education: Responding to the rise of for-profit education in the United States. In E. Sengupta, P. Blessinger, and C. Mahoney (Eds.) Leadership strategies for promoting social responsibility in higher education (24th ed., pp. 127-139). Emerald Group Publishing.

Harrison, L.M. (2020). Using technology in teaching. In L. Flores & J. Olcott, J (Eds.) The academic’s handbook (pp. 181-188). Duke University Press.

Harper, D. & Harrison, L. M. (2020). Ethical leadership in higher education: Responding to the rise of for-profit education in the United States. In E. Sengupta, P. Blessinger, and C. Mahoney (Eds.) Leadership strategies for promoting social responsibility in higher education (Vol. 24. pp. 127-139). Emerald Group Publishing.

Harrison, L. M. (2019). Teaching struggling students: Lessons learned from both sides of the classroom. Palgrave Macmillan.

Harrison, L. M. & Hasan, S. (2019).  Promoting educational equity through democratizing intelligence. In C.L. Lowery & P.M. Jenlink (Eds.), The handbook of Dewey’s educational theory and practice (pp. 205-220). Brill Sense.

Harrison, L. M. & Hatfield Price, M. (2017). Interrupting class inequality in higher education: Leadership for an equitable future. Routledge.

Gill, P. & Harrison, L. M. (2018). The completion agenda impact on student affairs practice in community colleges. Community College Journal of Research and Practice. 42(11), 797-811.

Harrison, L. M. (2018). [Review of the book Are you smart enough? By A. Astin]. Review of Higher Education 41(2), 307-310.

Harrison, L. M. & Mather, P. (2017). Making meaning of student activism: Student activist and administrator perspectives. Mid-Western Educational Researcher, 29(2), 117-135.

Su, M. & Harrison, L. M. (2016). Being wholesaled: An investigation of Chinese international students’ higher education experiences. Journal of International Students 26(4), 905-919.

Harrison, L. M. (2015). Critical management studies’ role in productive conversations about racism.  In L. Drakeford (Ed.),  The race controversy in American education (pp. 191-208).  Praeger Publishing.

Carver, L. & Harrison, L. M. (2015). Critical thinking vs. vocationalism: A matter of class?  Equity and Excellence in Education 48(2), 283-298.

Harrison, L. M. & Risler, L. (2015). The role consumerism plays in student learning.  Active Learning in Higher Education 16(1), 67-76.

Harrison, L. M. & Mather, P.  (2015). Alternative solutions to higher education’s problems: An appreciative approach to reform. Routledge.

Harrison, L.M. & Mather, P. (2015). Alternative solutions to higher education’s problems: An appreciative approach to reform. New York City, NY: Routledge.

Harrison, L.M. (2015). Critical management studies’ role in productive conversations about racism. In Drakeford, L. (Ed.) The Race Controversy in American Education, 191-208. Santa Barbara, CA: Praeger Publishing.

Harrison, L.M. & Risler, L. (2015). The role consumerism plays in student learning. Active Learning in Higher Education 16(1), 67-76.

Carver, L. & Harrison, L. M. (2015). Critical thinking vs. vocationalism: A matter of class? Equity and Excellence in Education 48(2), 283-298.

Harrison, L.M. (2014). How student affairs professionals learn to advocate: A phenomenological study. Journal of College and Character 15(3), 165-178.

Risler, L. & Harrison, L.M. (2014). Is there a correlation between college presidential compensation and performance? Australian Universities Review 56(2), 30-35.

Davis, T. & Harrison, L.M. (2013). Advancing social justice: Tools, pedagogies, and strategies to transform your campus. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

Harrison, L. M. & Hasan, S. (2013). Appreciative inquiry in teaching and learning. New Directions for Student Services 143, 65-75. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

Carver, L. & Harrison, L.M. (2013). MOOCs and democratic education. Liberal Education 99(4), 20-25.

Harrison, L.M. (2013). Faculty and student affairs collaboration in the corporate university. Journal of College and Character 14(4), 365-372.

Harrison, L. M. (2011). Transformational leadership, integrity, and power. In Young. R. (Ed.) New Directions for Student Services, 135, 45-52. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

Harrison, L.M. (2011). Using critical pedagogy to critique power issues in transformational leadership. In Barbour, J. & Hickman, G. (Eds.) Leadership for Transformation (pp.125-140). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

Harrison, L.M. (2010). Consequences and strategies student affairs professionals engage in their advocacy roles. Journal of Student Affairs Research and Practice 47(2), 197-214.