Susan Engel, Ph.D

Susan Engel is the Class of 1959 Director of the Program in Teaching, and Senior Lecturer in Psychology at Williams College.  Her research interests include the development of narrative, curiosity, and invention in childhood. Her current research examines how young children pursue ideas. Her scholarly work has appeared in journals such as Cognitive Development, Developmental Psychology, Harvard Educational Review, and the American Education Research Journal. Her writing on education has appeared in The New York Times, Washington Post, Bloomberg View, The Nation, The Atlantic Monthly, Salon, Huffington Post, and The Boston Globe. Her books include: The End of the Rainbow: How Educating For Happiness (Not Money) Would Transform Our Schools, The Hungry Mind: The Origins of Curiosity in Childhood and The Intellectual Lives of Children.  Her newest book, American Kindergarten: Dispatches from the First Year of School, will be published in 2026. Before she was a developmental psychologist she taught young children.