Layton Curl

Professor of Psychology

Psychological Sciences

[email protected]

I'm Teaching

Introductory Psychology
Careers and Professional Development in Psychology
Social Psychology
Psychology of Sexuality
Advanced Psychological Research Methods

Biography

I joined the faculty at Metropolitan State University of Denver in 2004 and have spent more than two decades teaching, mentoring students, conducting research, and contributing to the University. Before making Denver home, I taught at universities in New York, Mississippi, and Japan.

I earned my Ph.D. in Psychology and M.A. in Experimental Psychology from the University of Mississippi and my B.A. in Psychology from Lyon College. I also earned a Diploma in Asian Studies from Kansai Gaidai University in Japan and, more recently, completed the Management Development Program at Harvard University’s Graduate School of Education.

During my career at MSU Denver, I served as Chair of the Department of Psychological Sciences for more than a decade. In 2022, I was honored as the College of Letters, Arts and Sciences Chair/Director of the Year. After many years in academic leadership, I returned my primary focus to the parts of university life that first drew me to the profession: teaching, working closely with students, conducting research, and exploring consequential questions about how people think and behave.

My own path to higher education was not especially conventional. I was born in Arkansas and spent much of my early life moving throughout the South and Midwest, including years in small towns, trailer parks, and working on family farms. Educational opportunities were sometimes limited, but curiosity and persistence eventually opened unexpected doors. While in high school, I earned an opportunity to study abroad in Japan, where I completed part of my high school education and later returned to study at Kansai Gaidai University. Living abroad at a young age changed how I understood culture, identity, and human behavior and ultimately helped lead me to psychology.
I was never the student who understood everything on the first try. I was, however, persistent. That experience continues to shape how I teach and mentor students today. I believe intellectual ability develops through curiosity, effort, careful thinking, and a willingness to reconsider what we think we know. Some of the most capable students I have taught were not the ones who found college easiest, but the ones who learned to persist when it was difficult.

My work has also taken me well beyond the traditional classroom. I have co-produced numerous educational films examining culture, human sexuality, gender, identity, relationships, and the search for a meaningful life. These projects including The Meaningful Life, Dimensions of Culture, Becoming Me: The Gender Within, Rocking the Cradle: Gay Parenting, and the 21-part Portraits in Sexuality series, have been used in classrooms in the United States and internationally.

Travel remains an important part of my life and an extension of my longstanding interest in culture and human behavior. My spouse and I have traveled extensively throughout the world, visiting every continent except Antarctica. At home, we share our lives with Fang, our remarkably long-lived and equally opinionated cat. At nearly 30, he’s older than most of my students.

One of the things I value most about being a professor is the opportunity to work with students who are still figuring out where they are going. If you are curious about something we are studying, interested in psychology or research, considering what comes after college, or simply trying to find your next step, please feel free to say hello. I am always glad to talk with students who ask good questions, think deeply, and are willing to try again when something does not come easily.

You do not have to have everything figured out. You just have to start.