Straughn credits three family members for creative and research assistance:
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His wife Carole (born November 9, 1941 in Bartlesville, OK) earned her Master of Arts in Teaching degree from Harvard Graduate School of Education in 1965, and introduced her husband to early childhood cognitive and creative research. Her interests in developmental psychology tracked with his in adult spiritual and psychological stages of development, which provided hours of conversation and encouragement during the seven-year period when LifeSpirals was incubating. |
Straughn’s son Jeremy (b. July 2, 1966 in Boston, MA) conducted his doctoral research in sociology at the University of Chicago, where he employed life story sociology techniques to interview East German students as they described the changes they were going through following the end of the Cold War. Jeremy also worked during his M.A. program at Harvard with stage theorist Michael Commons. He was part of a Commons-led team that published research in developmental journals. Jeremy currently serves as an associate professor of sociology at Purdue University, where he teaches undergraduates and graduate students on subjects related to adult self-identity and community. He also floods his dad with emails and phone calls on relevant state-of-the-art research. |
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Daughter Joanna (b. January 9, 1969 in Abilene, TX) is a poet, short-story writer, and literary critic. She and her husband Victor Gener, a philosophy major, update their family author on current experts in creativity and aesthetic consciousness. Joanna earned her M.F.A. degree in literature in 2002 from the University of Utah, and her poems have been published in Kenyon Review and her chapbook, Instinct (Bright Hill Press). Many of her writings distill her experiences as a child growing up in many locales, viewed now from her adult, post-modern, post-feminist perspective. Joanna continues her writing while taking time for Sophia Isabella Gener, born on July 18, 2001. |
Sophia Isabella Gener, born on July 18, 2001. |
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