Chris Kilmartin

Professor of Psychology

Chris Kilmartin has done stand-up comedy
to open for big-league comedians Paula Poundstone and Martin Lawrence. He’s
drawn laughs across the nation with his autobiographical solo show Crimes Against Nature. And he’s delivered powerful performances on the University of Mary Washington stage.

Off-stage, the psychologist and licensed counselor has penned books on such weighty issues as men’s depression and masculine identity. He is an internationally recognized expert in gender roles, men’s issues, and the prevention of gender-based violence and sexual harassment.

Of all his pursuits, though, the UMW psychology professor is most devoted to making an impact in the classroom.

“I like the world of ideas,” said the 20-year UMW veteran. “I like to explore them and bring them to students, and to help them apply things that we learn from our discipline to their real lives.”

Kilmartin also brings his witty dialogue to class to illustrate major concepts. It makes them easier to understand, he said, and easier to remember. And it keeps students interested.

“While my classes are hardly a laugh a minute, we do laugh,” he said. “Class should be fun at least some of the time.”

In 2006, Kilmartin was a Fulbright distinguished chair in gender studies at the University of Klagenfurt, Australia. He brought the White Ribbon Campaign, a movement to end men’s violence against women and begun in Canada, to the United States. It has spread to college campuses nationwide.

“I’ve found that I can make a contribution,” he said, “by helping to raise awareness of this problem and mobilize the good but passive men to take a stand and use their influence to help end the horror of gender-based violence.”

Kilmartin wrote the textbook for his course on the psychology of men, and several of his books have been translated for the overseas market. The Masculine Self has been translated to Korean, and The Pain Behind the Mask: Overcoming Masculine Depression has been translated into Hebrew.

The Department of Psychology is one of the largest at UMW. Its professional approach to the field, excellence in teaching, and wide variety of courses mean most UMW students take at least one psychology class before they graduate.

“The department is very science-oriented,” Dr. Kilmartin said. “Students who want to become professional psychologists will get a good grounding in research skills.”