Dear SPSSI family,

We are only 10 weeks from the 2018 SPSSI conference in Pittsburgh, PA, June 29 - July 1, 2018! Since our last newsletter, we have been hard at work reviewing and accepting conference submissions, designing coherent groupings for the 15-minute talks, arranging the conference schedule, and confirming speakers and special events! You can find the preliminary conference agenda HERE, though we have received some requests to move sessions, which we are in the process of accommodating.

Consistent with our conference theme “Bridges to Justice: Building Coalitions and Collaborations Within and Beyond Psychology” we are excited to be hosting sessions on community-engaged scholarship, using research to influence policy, fostering academic collaborations to improve the success of underrepresented students, intergroup solidarity in social movements, the science of resistance movements, dilemmas and strategies in social justice education, classroom activism, addressing discrimination in the justice system, and more.

We are also thrilled to be able to report two additional invited speakers: Drs. Keith Maddox and Ama de-Graft Aikins! Dr. de-Graft Aikins is Professor of Social Psychology and Dean of International Programmes at the University of Ghana (UG), and will be giving the invited Keynote on Sunday. She is a critical social psychologist who applies participatory qualitative research methods to the topic of health in African settings.

Dr. Maddox is Associate Professor of Psychology at Tufts University, and will be giving a talk on racial bias at our Science Café- one of two signature events for this year’s conference. On Thursday evening, from 7:00-9:00 pm, SPSSI is sponsoring a special Science Café Night at the Carnegie Science Center - free and open to the public! Our social justice and psychology-themed science café will bring our research to the public via talks on topics relevant to social justice work in Pittsburgh. We will have one additional speaker for the café, who we will announce shortly. Details on transportation to the center, and advertisements for the café, are also forthcoming. In the meantime, please make room in your Thursday night schedules for this awesome event, which bridges a gap between the work done by our professional society and the community of Pittsburgh.

The second signature event for this year’s conference will be the integration of the I am Psyched! Exhibit Tour- a multimedia pop-up exhibit on the contributions of women of color in psychology. We will be pairing this exhibit with a public panel of women of color psychologists, who will discuss their own experiences and accomplishments for an audience including women and girls of color in the local community. We are currently working with girls’ groups in Pittsburgh who we are inviting to attend and participate for free!

As always, there will also be programming brought to you by the Early Career Scholars, Diversity, Internationalization, and Graduate Student Committees.

Thank you for your work in preparing and reviewing submissions, and for joining us in Pittsburgh this summer, for what looks to be the largest SPSSI conference ever! We can’t wait to see you there.

Asia and Jason

CONFERENCE CO-CHAIRS

Asia Eaton: aeaton@fiu.edu        

Jason Lawrence: Jason_Lawrence@uml.edu

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