Professor, Department of Psychology, College of Liberal Arts and Education
2018
Bio:
Professor Libby Blume joined Mercy College of Detroit (now University of Detroit Mercy) in 1987 as an Assistant Professor and Director, Child Development Center, Division of Professional Studies (1987-1990). Since the consolidation of Mercy College of Detroit and University of Detroit, Professor Blume has served as the Director, Developmental Psychology and Family Life Education, Department of Psychology in the College of Liberal Arts and Education. Within this same time period, Professor Blume served as an Adjunct Professor and Co-Director of the Masters of Community Development (2008-2013) degree program of the School of Architecture.
Professor Blume’s appointment to Detroit Mercy was preceded by experience as Instructor and Head Teacher at the Onica Prall Child Development Center (Maryland) and Lecturer and Director of the Child Development Center, Human Development and Family Studies in the College of Human Sciences, Texas Tech University. Professor Blume also served both as a Studio Art and Children’s Art Instructor in two California cities, Instructor and Director of an Early Childhood Resource Center in Santa Cruz California, and was an expert in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Administration for Children, Youth, and Families in Washington D.C.
Mark Denham, Dean, College of Liberal Arts and Education, in his nomination support letter wrote “Dr. Blume is clearly recognized as an outstanding educator who has consistently provided rigorous academic courses…Her diverse areas of academic expertise are represented in the [26 different] courses she has taught….The respect students have for her is illustrated by the fact that she has chaired twelve Ph.D. dissertation committees. This is notable in that all these students were in the clinical psychology Ph.D. program, a program in which Dr. Blume was not a core faculty member and her sub-disciplinary specialty not clinical psychology.”
Professor Blume has indicated her “primary teaching has focused on a range of multidisciplinary courses within the field of Human Development and Family Studies, usually located in departments of psychology, sociology and education as well as architecture and community development. Given students’ need to translate research and theory into their complex and diverse areas of practice, my teaching primarily has had an applied focus. I developed a hands-on classroom style that emphasizes reflection, intentionality, and professional communication. Pedagogically, I believe in
the importance of both research knowledge and personal experience as legitimate sources of knowing and strive to help students integrate learning into their own lives beyond the classroom and into the community.”
Will Wittig, Dean of the School of Architecture, in his nomination support letter wrote “she is truly transdisciplinary in both her teaching and her research.” Beyond Professor Blume’s responsibilities to the College of Liberal Arts and Education “her contributions to the School of Architecture have been equally rich. For many years she has offered an important required course for our students in environmental psychology. In this course, she has emphasized a humanistic approach to architecture that recognizes the importance of cultural diversity, social interaction, and civic life. Her leadership in this class has helped each of our students understand that our work enables the development of vibrant communities where people live, work, and play together. She has also contributed to the evolution of the architectural imagination of our students by challenging them to actually see the world around them in the first year drawing class that she also teaches regularly. And maybe most significantly, she has been instrumental in creating, leading, and teaching in one of Detroit Mercy’s most interdisciplinary projects, the Masters of Community Development program. This unique program was not created to fit into an existing educational compartment, but was designed very intentionally in response to an intersection between an unmet need in the community and a broad palette of talents we find here on campus. The success of that endeavor more than ten years later, and its real impact in our community, in my view should be on a short list of her greatest accomplishments in her quest for a truly expansive, boundary-less form of education.”
Professor Blume has provided invaluable service to the university through her committee assignments. Over her tenure with the university she served as chairperson of the Graduate Standards and Retention Committee, Women’s Studies Steering Committee, Board for Women’s Studies, University Faculty Development Committee, and Special Needs Consolidation Committee. She also served as a member of numerous committees and task forces including Curriculum for the College of Liberal Arts and School of Architecture Masters of Community Development, Women’s and Gender Studies, Honors Program Self-Study, College of Liberal Arts Promotion and Tenure, Child Care, Council on Family Relations, Americans with Disabilities Act, move of Outer Drive campus, academic [program] review, and student services consolidation.
Exemplary is Professor Blume’s history of consistently writing, editing, and publishing in peer reviewed books and journals as well as service on professional boards. She is the author or co-author of six books, twelve book chapters, twenty-two journal articles, fifteen discussions or roundtables, nine juried papers, and eighteen juried posters. Materials covered include a wide range of subjects including families and the criminal justice system, Irish families & globalization, middle childhood development, feminist perspectives on families, family life education with diverse populations, multicultural and critical race feminisms, spatial embodiment in architectural representation, urban homelessness, transdisciplinary family science, bridging gender theory and research,
and families and the new millennium. Of particular note is Professor Blume’s appointment as editor-in-chief of the important Journal of Family Theory & Review.
National Boards, National Conference Chairperson, State Conference Chairperson, and Community Advisory Boards have all been an integral aspect of Professor Blume’s dedication to her profession. She has served on the Board of Directors of both the Groves Conference on Marriage and Family and the National Council on Family Relations. For the National Council on Family Relations, Professor Blume also served as Awards Chair, Feminism & Family Studies Section, Long-Range Planning Committee, Theory Construction & Research Methodology, Distinguished Service to Families Awards Committee, and Association of Councils. Community advisory boards include Michigan Classic Ballet Company, Poverty and Social Reform Institute, St. Joseph Mercy Hospital (Pontiac MI), Salvation Army Evangeline Ward Center, Grace Hospital Child Care Center, and Detroit Public Schools Project Head Start.
For decades, Professor Blume has been honored with academic and service awards. She has been a Fellow, National Council on Family Relations (2017), received University of Detroit Mercy Women’s & Gender Studies Lifetime Achievement Award (2016), University of Detroit Mercy Faculty Excellence Award (2015), Academic Honor Recognition Award, National Council on Family Relations (2009), Elected Member Groves Conference on Marriage and Family (2003), Meritorious Service Award National Council on Family Relations (2000), Governor’s Honor Roll of Volunteers for the Arts from the State of Michigan (1995), Faculty Scholar recognition Institute of Gerontology, Wayne State University (1990), President’s Award as Outstanding Instructor, College of Human Sciences, Texas Tech University (1984), and Award of Excellence, U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare (1979).
Professor Blume holds an earned B.A. in Studio Art and Applied Behavioral Sciences from University of California at Davis (1971), a M.A. in Interdisciplinary Creative Arts Education from San Francisco State University (1973), and a Ph.D. in Human Development and Family Studies from Texas Tech University (1987). She also holds certifications including Certified Family Life Educator from National Council on Family Relations (1999), Gerontology Certificate from Wayne State University Institute for Gerontology (1998), and Lifetime Community College Teaching Credential in Studio Art from the State of California (1975).
The nomination of Professor Blume for Professor Emerita was approved and conferred by Dr. Antoine M. Garibaldi, President of University of Detroit Mercy on August 16, 2018