Hello SPSSI members! We are the Teaching & Mentoring Committee, and we’re excited to kick off 2026 with this teaching-themed winter newsletter. Our mission is to promote social justice in the psychology classroom and support instructors as they do this critical work. We’re grateful for the chance to share some of our recent work with you.

One big project we are working on is an overhaul of the teaching and mentoring materials on SPSSI’s website. These can be great resources for instructors who are developing syllabi, designing assignments and activities, or looking for new ideas to share with their students. But they have gotten dated and disorganized over the years, and it’s time to freshen things up! If you have any recent resources that you would like to share with the SPSSI community, we encourage you to submit them to the committee. We’ll review the materials and add them to the website (either anonymously or credited to your name, as you prefer).

For those of you who will be attending the annual conference in New Orleans this summer, we have some great programming in the works. Our committee will be hosting a session to celebrate recent teaching award winners, and to share interesting projects funded by teaching grants. (Hey, while we’re thinking about grants and awards, maybe you’d like to apply for one or nominate a colleague this year!) We are also planning an interactive discussion about mentoring. Please reach out if you are interested in being a part of these sessions or have suggestions for topics you’d like to discuss. And we know many others will be planning teaching-related programming for the conference as well – please share so we can help promote these events!

This is just the beginning. We’re always looking for ways to connect SPSSI members to share ideas about teaching and mentoring the next generations of social justice scholars and practitioners. Keep an eye out for future webinars and updated resources. And please be in touch if you are interested in getting involved! You can find us at spssi.teaching@gmail.com or email any of the committee members directly. Cheers to a new year of impactful teaching!