Dr. Stefania Aegisdottir appeared in our 2002 edition of Bene Facta magazine. She was profiled for her Distinguished Dissertation award for Icelanders’ and Americans’ Expectations about Counseling: Do Expectations Vary by Nationality, Sex, and Holland’s Typology?
Aegisdottir worked at a local juvenile detention center for two years after earning her doctorate and then returned to Ball State to teach and do research. Her passion is international research and international research methodology. “There’s just a lot of challenges when you have to translate measures to other cultures. So I’ve written about that because you can’t translate verbatim, you have to be sure you capture the meaning.”
Dr. Aegisdottir talking with her students
In 2009, Aegisdottir co-wrote the International Handbook of Cross-Cultural Counseling. She and her co-authors have written about different issues related to globalization of psychology and counseling. It also includes scholars’ articles from 30 countries on the same subject.
For the past three summers, Aegisdottir has also been introducing her native Iceland to Ball State students in a cultural immersion course. She plans to use data from the trips to study cultural competence before and after returning from an international trip.
“I’m just teaching here and I’m directing the master’s in clinical mental health counseling. I am also teaching in the doctoral program. I teach advanced research. I focus my research on psychological help seeking in the United States and internationally. I spend time talking about international research. Anytime anybody wants to do international research, I’m all for it. I want to help.”