Stuart Vyse is a professor of psychology at Connecticut College in New London, CT. He earned BA and MA degrees in English literature at Southern Illinois University and MA and PhD degrees in psychology at the University of Rhode Island. He has published over thirty professional articles and book chapters on topics including autism, skepticism, belief in the paranormal, and behavior analysis. He began teaching at Connecticut College in 1986, and he has chaired the Department of Psychology on two occasions.

Vyse’s first book Believing in Magic: The Psychology of Superstition (Oxford, 1997) won the 1999 William James Book Award of the American Psychological Association and was translated into German and Japanese.

Stuart Vyse was born on November 18, 1950 and spent his formative years in Park Forest, Illinois, the historic post-World War II planned community profiled in William Whyte’s bestselling book The Organization Man. He has also lived in Urbana, Carbondale, and Murphysboro, Illinois, San Francisco, California, and Providence, Westerly, and Newport, Rhode Island. He now resides in the seaside village of Stonington, Connecticut.

Photo by Graham Vyse

Vyse’s latest book Going Broke: Why Americans Can’t Hold On To Their Money (Oxford, 2008) is a timely analysis of the current epidemic of personal debt.

Stuart Vyse has two children and no pets.

Vyse makes an annual recommendation for the Album of the Summer. (See the opinion piece “NPR Made Me Hip To My Kids” to learn the origins of this award.) Previous winners include Regina Spektor (2007 for Begin to Hope), Sufjan Stevens (2006 for Illinoise), and Jack Johnson (2005 for In Between Dreams). To receive future Album of the Summer announcements, send him an email.