Biography

Dr. Stelzl grew up in Prague, Czechoslovakia (now the Czech Republic or Czechia). She lived in Austria as a refugee before being able to settle in Halifax in 1990. She holds BA (Honours in Psychology and Major in Russian Studies from the University of New Brunswick), MA (Western), and PhD (Western). The title of her PhD dissertation was MOATING:  The Strategic Utilisation of the Dual Social Identities of the Other. Before coming to St. Thomas University, Dr. Stelzl taught at the University of Western Ontario and its two affiliated universities: Kings University College and Brescia University College. She joined the Department of Psychology at St. Thomas University in 2006 and has thrived there happily since. 
 
Dr. Stelzl has published articles in the areas of social identities, immigration, and sexuality. In 2010, she was awarded The European Journal of Social Psychology Early Career Best Manuscript Award for 'Champ or Chump: Strategic Utilization of Dual Social Identities of Others'. This article was co-authored with Dr. Leslie Janes and Dr. Clive Seligman. During 2009-2012, Dr. Stelzl was a co-investigator in inter-provincial migration research project supported by SSHRC Standard Research Grant with Dr. Richard Y. Bourhis as the Principal Investigator and Dr. Victoria Esses (Co-investigator). 
 
Dr. Stelzl has developed and teaches various courses on the topic of sexuality such as Sexuality and Diversity (PSYC 3183) and Seminar in Sexuality (PSYC 4183). More recently she developed an experiential course called the Psychology of Human-Nature Connection (PSYC 3443). As a part of this course, Dr. Stelzl guides students on several forest bathing/forest therapy walks (i.e., sensory explorations in nature). To teach this course, Dr. Stelzl trained and became certified forest therapy guide in 2019. The quality of her teaching was recognized by students’ nomination for the John McKendy Memorial Teaching Award which she received in 2019. Dr. Stelzl was also nominated by St. Thomas University for the Association of Atlantic Universities’ (AAU) Distinguished Teaching Award in 2021.