Announcing Dr. Michael W. Kraus as the #SPSSICON26 Opening Keynote!
Friday, June 26, 2026
New Orleans, LA
Michael W. Kraus is a Professor of Psychology at Northwestern University, Morton O. Schapiro Faculty Fellow at the Institute for Policy Research, and founding director of Society Workshop—a nonprofit focused on connecting social science research with communities that can use it to improve people’s lives. Michael was trained as a social-personality psychologist at the University of California, Berkeley, where he received his B.A. in psychology and sociology and his Ph.D in social psychology. Before arriving at Northwestern, Michael was a postdoctoral scholar at UC San Francisco, an assistant professor of psychology at the University of Illinois, and an assistant/associate professor of organizational behavior at Yale University. Michael studies the maintenance of societal inequality using methods that range from controlled laboratory experiments to qualitative interviews. Michael enjoys teaching about the contribution of basic psychological states to inequality and collaborating with trainees on related topics. Michael lives in Evanston, IL with his spouse and their two children. He grew up in southern California. In his free time, Michael enjoys brunch, coffee, Warriors basketball, Liverpool football, and being a dad.
Join Dr. Kraus in New Orleans!
SPSSI’s Summer Conference will be held from June 26-28, 2026, in New Orleans! Join us for thought-provoking presentations, dynamic discussions, and opportunities to connect with others who share a commitment to addressing important social issues. This year's conference theme is “Lespwa fe viv” (Hope Makes Us Live): Using Research and Action to Cultivate Joy, Resilience, and Liberation.
SPSSI celebrates its 90th anniversary this year! To honor this milestone at the conference, we welcome submissions which may reflect on SPSSI's history, offer discussion of our society and scientific scholarship in a historical context, and/or underscore future aims for SPSSI's work, broadly defined. Please considered submitting for this special track programming focused on SPSSI 's 90th anniversary!
The submission deadline is February 15, 2026. There will be no extension of this deadline. If you have questions about the SPSSI Conference or the submission process, please email spssicon@spssi.org.
Submission Types
- 15-MINUTE PRESENTATIONS: Individual proposals may be submitted as 15-Minute Presentations. If accepted, SPSSI co-chairs will group these short presentations with 2-3 other submissions of a similar topic based on the keywords you select. Proposals must include a title (15-word max), a summary (200-word max), and contact information for all authors.
- POSTER PRESENTATIONS: Individual proposals may be submitted as Posters. Proposals must include a title (15-word max), a summary (200-word max), and contact information for all authors.
- INTERACTIVE DISCUSSIONS (1 hour): In this format, presenters and attendees sit at roundtables for an informal, interactive discussion. Presenters will give brief remarks to introduce the topic and facilitate an interactive discussion. Proposals should include a mention of how they will engage the audience in the discussion. Audio-visual equipment will not be available for these sessions. Proposals must include a title (10-word max), a summary (200-word max), and contact information for all authors.
- SYMPOSIUM (90 minutes): Symposium presentations include 3 to 4 talks on a common topic. Proposals must include a symposium title (10-word max), a summary of the symposium theme (200-word max), talk titles (10-word max) and talk summaries (200-word max), and contact information for all authors.
If you have questions about the SPSSI Conference or the submission process, please email spssicon@spssi.org.
Learn more about our programs today, open to various students, early career scholars, and international scholars. SPSSI travel funds may be used to cover all conference-related expenses including conference registration, economy transportation, lodging, and approved meal expenses. All travel grants are awarded following the conference only in the form of post-expense reimbursement upon submission of all receipts, and expense form completion. Exclusions: Applicants are able to submit to more than one program. However, no more than one type of travel grant will be given to an individual. The application deadline for all travel funding grants is April 1, 2026.
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Reviewers need to be available February 16-24, 2026
First and foremost, thank you for your service to SPSSI. We know reviewing submissions takes time out of your busy schedules, and we sincerely appreciate the time you’re devoting to determine conference programming. Those with prior experience reviewing proposals for symposia, papers, and posters are particularly encouraged to volunteer. Advanced graduate students are welcome as reviewers. Must be a SPSSI member. Sign up by February 8th at 11:59pm EDT. We will assign each reviewer 5-8 submissions based on your area of expertise. Given the large number of submissions, you may be asked to review some presentations that are outside of your expertise. Please reach out if you have any questions and thank you again for your service!
Click here to sign up!
“Lespwa fè viv” (Hope Makes Us Live): Using Research and Action to Cultivate Joy, Resilience, and Liberation
As SPSSI celebrates its 90th anniversary, we look to New Orleans, a place where joy itself can be a form of resistance and where communities have rebuilt again and again in the face of structural neglect, racism, and displacement. The conference theme, drawn from the Haitian Creole expression lespwa fè viv (“hope makes us live”), honors SPSSI’s historical commitment to confronting injustice while inviting us to imagine the futures we must build together. Across nine decades, SPSSI scholars have challenged systems of oppression, defended human rights, and advanced psychological science that speaks truth to power. Yet today’s current landscape demands renewed courage, creativity, and hope.
At this year’s SPSSI conference, we hope to celebrate the past 90 years of SPSSI’s fight for social justice and, at the same time, recognize the urgent work ahead, which requires applied research, collective action, and transformative policy. We seek proposals that honor how marginalized groups resist oppression, including but not limited to, classism, racism, cissexism, sexism, heterosexism, and their intersections. We encourage an emphasis on research that tests “out of the box,” creative, and innovative interventions that promote collective well-being. We welcome work that helps us understand how to cultivate allyship and civic courage capable of resisting dehumanization, oppression, and genocide. Submissions focusing on community-level interventions; collective action; public policy; equity; resilience; hope; radical hope; joy; and national and international immigration, migration, and displacement are encouraged. We value a wide array of research methods, including mixed-methods, participatory action research, decolonial approaches, and work conducted across the lifespan.
In the words of Angela Davis, “It is in collectivities that we find reservoirs of hope and optimism.” We hope to cultivate a space where we can come together as a collective to celebrate SPSSI’s past, grieve the painful realities of the present, and co-create a shared vision for a more equitable future.
If you have questions about the SPSSI Conference or submission process, please email spssicon@spssi.org
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Dr. Yara Mekawi, PhD, is an assistant professor in the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences at the University of Louisville, a licensed clinical psychologist, and director of the Challenging Ongoing Legacies Of Racism (COLOR) Lab. She completed her B.A. in Psychology at the University of Illinois Chicago and her Ph.D. in Clinical and Community Psychology at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, followed by her clinical internship and postdoctoral fellowship at the Emory University School of Medicine. Click here to read Dr. Mekawi's full bio.
Dr. Harmony A. Reppond, PhD, is an Associate Professor of Psychology at the University of Michigan, Dearborn, whose work bridges social psychology, community-based research, and policy engagement to examine the causes and consequences of economic inequality. Grounded in critical and feminist psychological epistemologies and inspired by Kurt Lewin’s full-cycle model, her research investigates how poverty, precarity, and unequal access to resources shape beliefs, interpersonal experiences, and expectations of institutional responsibility. She is committed to using psychological science to illuminate and challenge the structural conditions that generate social and economic inequity. Click here to read Dr. Reppond's full bio.
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