Kathleen Barker, Ph.D.
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Dr. Kathleen Barker, Professor of Psychology at Medgar Evers College of The City University of New York, is a social psychologist who conducts multidisciplinary research on nonstandard work, higher education and social justice, and methodology. She co-edited a collection published by ILR/Cornell University Press, "Contingent Work: American Employment Relations in Transition," which was selected as one of the year's noteworthy books in industrial relations and labor economics by Princeton University's Firestone Library.
Dr. Barker has researched impact factor scores (IFS), specifically the reliability of IFS metrics and their potential for abuse in tenure and promotion decisions in higher education. In addition, she has co-authored an extensive series of papers on self-efficacy as a construct in evaluating student outcomes. Publications include a chapter in "The Portable Mentor" on employment in psychology; a chapter on part-time work in a collection on the workplace, Women Employees and Human Resource Management; and a reprinted article in a text on methodology, Extreme Methods: Innovative Approaches in Social Science Research. Since 1990, Prof. Barkerr has published sole and co-authored articles in Sex Roles, Psychological Reports, Social Work and Education, and Social Work and Health Care, as well as an instructor’s manual on the psychology of women. A special issue of Social Work and Health Care examined the role of bibliometrics in social work research which was re-published as a separate monograph.
She has authored or co-authored 46 publications, delivered 52 presentations, and currently holds an h-index of 23. Prior to her tenure at Medgar Evers College, she held faculty and administrative positions at Pace University, New York University, Columbia University and Bard College.
Prof. Barker has applied her labor expertise to University service since 2002, when she was first elected a CUNY University Faculty Senator from Medgar Evers College. Her research included the study of the professoriate at CUNY, the largest urban university in the United States. She chaired the Committee on the Faculty Experience Survey and was Principal Investigator for the UFS Faculty Experience Survey of Full- and Part-time Faculty (https://www1.cuny.edu/sites/cunyufs/wp-content/uploads/sites/48/2017/06/2009-Faculty-Experience-Survey-Technical-Report.pdf). Following the report, she chaired the UFS standing Committee on Status of the Faculty.
She served on the EC as an At-Large Member from 2012 through 2016. In 2016, Dr. Barker was elected Vice Chair, served for two terms, and represented faculty on the Enrollment Management Council and the Faculty Affairs Advisory Board. During her tenure on the EC, she served as the UFS faculty representative to the CUNY Board of Trustees Committee on Faculty, Staff and Administration and Committee on Planning and Facilities.
In the spring of 2020, Dr. Barker was elected Chairperson of the Medgar Evers Faculty Senate (Faculty Governance Leader). During her two terms as Chair, she and her colleagues revitalized the MEC Faculty Senate in several areas. These included starting the first MEC Senate web page and programming speakers on higher education topics, such as shared governance, budget, parliamentary procedures, and bullying. Dr. Barker chose to step down from this position in May of 2022 but her service to the College and University continues via her other roles. She accepted an invitation to chair the UFS Academic Affairs Advisory Committee for the 2022-2023 academic year. In 2024 and again in 2025, she was elected to the UFS Executive Committee and has represented faculty as an Alternate to the Board of Trustees' Committee on Education Policy and Subcommittee on Technology.
Past service includes election as Senior College Representative for six years on the Executive Council of the Professional Staff Congress, the largest faculty and staff union in the U.S., and as Grievance Counselor for four years. Prof. Barker was named to the American Psychological Association's 2005 and 2006 panels on the Work Force in Psychology. She assisted panel members in deciding the scope and methodology of the workforce analysis and in writing the final report with recommendations to APA's Board of Directors. One of the results was the establishment of the APA Center for Workforce Analysis. Dr. Barker also served as a network member for the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.
Dr. Barker was awarded her doctorate in Social-Personality Psychology in 1990 from The Graduate Center/The City University of New York. She resides in The Bronx with her spouse, Professor Gary Holden.
Primary Interests:
- Applied Social Psychology
- Gender Psychology
- Intergroup Relations
- Law and Public Policy
- Organizational Behavior
- Research Methods, Assessment
- Social Cognition
- Sociology, Social Networks
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Books:
- Barker, K. (2000). Instructor’s manual: Engendering psychology. Boston: Allyn & Bacon.
- Barker, K., & Christensen, K. (Eds.). (1998). Contingent work: American employment relations in transition. Ithaca, NY: ILR/Cornell University Press.
- Holden, G., Rosenberg, G., & Barker, K. (Eds.). (2005). Bibliometrics in social work. A special issue of Social Work and Health Care.
Journal Articles:
- Barker, K. (1993). Changing assumptions and contingent solutions: The costs and benefits of women working full- and part-time. Sex Roles, 28, 47-71.
- Barker, K. (1994). To be P.C. or not to be? A social psychological inquiry into political correctness. Journal of Social Behavior and Personality, 9, 271-281.
- Holden, G., & Barker, K. (2018). Should social workers be engaged in these practices? Journal of Evidence-Informed Social Work, 15, 1-13.
- Holden, G., Barker, K., Covert-Vail, L. Rosenberg, G., & Cohen S. A. (2009). Social Work Abstracts fails again. Research on Social Work Practice, 19, 715-21. (Related: Holden, G., Barker, K., Covert-Vail, L., Rosenberg, G., & Cohen, S. A. (2008). Does Social Work Abstracts work? Research on Social Work Practice, 18, 487-499.)
- Holden, G., Barker, K., Kuppens, S. & Rosenberg, G. (2015). A replication of failure, not a failure to replicate. Research on Social Work Practice, 25, 3, 313-321.
- Holden, G., Barker, K., Kuppens, S., & Rosenberg, G. (2017). Self efficacy regarding social work competencies. Research on Social Work Practice, 27, 594-606.
- Holden, G., Barker, K., Rosenberg, G., & Onghena, P. (2007). Assessing progress towards accreditation related objectives: Evidence regarding the use of self-efficacy as an outcome in the advanced concentration research curriculum. Research on Social Work Practice, 17, 456-465.
- Holden, G., Barker, K., Rosenberg, G., & Onghena, P. (2008). The Evaluation Self-Efficacy Scale: A replication. Research on Social Work Practice, 18, 42-46.
- Holden, G., Barker, K., Rosenberg, G., Kuppens, S., & Ferrell, L. W. (2011). The signature pedagogy of social work? An investigation of the evidence. Research on Social Work Practice, 21, 363-72.
- Holden, G., Rosenberg, G., Barker, K., & Lioi, J. (2010). Research on Social Work Practice: A bibliometric evaluation of the first decade. Research on Social Work Practice, 20, 11-20.
- Holden, G., Rosenberg, G., Barker, K., & Onghena, P. (2006). An assessment of the predictive validity of impact factor scores: Implications for academic employment decisions in social work. Research on Social Work Practice, 16, 613-624.
- Holden, G., Rosenberg, G., Barker, K., Tuhrim, S., & Brenner, B. (1993). The recruitment of research participants: A review. Social Work and Health Care, 19, 1-44.
- Kuppens, S., Holden, G., Barker, K., & Rosenberg, G. (2011). A Kappa related decision: K, Y, G or AC1. Social Work Research, 35, 185-189.
- Ross, A., & Barker, K. (2003). Gender, clothing, and cell phones: Observers’ first impressions of power in older African Americans. Psychological Reports, 93, 879-882.
Other Publications:
- Barker, K. (1995). Contingent work: Research issues and the lens of moral exclusion. In L. Tetrick & J. Barling (Eds.), Changing employment relations: Behavioral and social perspectives. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
- Barker, K. (2010). The Spring 2009 Faculty Experience Survey (FES:09): Report for full- and part-time faculty. (Technical Report and Appendices A - X). New York: The University Faculty Senate of The City University of New York.
- Barker, K. (2003). Contingent work in the United States. Entry for the Supplement to the 19th Edition of the Encyclopedia of Social Work. Washington, DC: NASW.
- Barker, K. (2014). Summary Report: Faculty Governance Leader Survey on Admissions and Enrollment Practices. New York: The University Faculty Senate of The City University of New York.
- Barker, K., & Kohout, J. (2003). Contemporary employment in psychology and future trends. In M. J. Prinstein & M. Patterson (Eds.), The portable mentor: Expert guide to a successful career in psychology. New York: Kluwer Academic/Plenum Press.
- Barker, K., Fong, L., Grossman, S., Quin, C., & Reid, R. (2000). Comparison of self-reported recycling attitudes and behaviors vs. actual behaviors. In J. Mitchell Miller and R. Tewksbury (Eds.)., Extreme methods: Innovative approaches to social science research. Boston: Allyn & Bacon. Reprint.
- Barker, K., Holden, G., Meenaghan, T., & Rosenberg, G. (2000). The Research Self-Efficacy Scale. In J. Maltby, C. A. Lewis, & A. P. Hill (Eds.), A Handbook of psychological tests (Vol. 2, pp. 886-887). Lampeter, Wales: Edwin Mellen Press.
- Holden, G., Barker, K., & Kuppens, S. (accepted for publication). The Evaluation Self-Efficacy Scale – III. In A. Opacic (Ed.), Social work within a professional competence framework. Springer and European Association of Schools of Social Work (EASSW).
Courses Taught:
- Applied Social Psychology
- Experimental Psychology
- Gender and Work
- Program Evaluation
- Psychological Statistics
- Psychological Theories of Justice and Injustice
- Psychology and Law
- Psychology of Women and Gender
- Research Methods
- Social Psychology
- The Social Psychology of Work
Kathleen Barker, Ph.D.
Department of Psychology
City University of New York
Medgar Evers College
Brooklyn, New York 11225
United States of America
- Phone: (718) 270-4854
