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2024 Kurt Lewin Award


The Kurt Lewin Award, given by the Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues, recognizes “outstanding contributions to the development and integration of psychological research and social action.”

The 2024 Kurt Lewin Award winner is Dr. Linda R. Tropp, Professor of Social Psychology and Faculty Associate in Public Policy at the University of Massachusetts Amherst
In selecting Dr. Tropp for this award, the committee recognizes her as a leading authority on using psychological science to improve intergroup relations.  In addition to a remarkable career as a social psychologist studying intergroup contact theory (with more than 125 papers and multiple books), Dr. Tropp also worked with a wide range of organizations (eight of whom provided glowing letters of support) seeking to implement evidence-based intergroup contact programs to build positive intergroup relations in various sectors.  Her synthesis of expertise in strong theoretical work and application to social issues is an excellent reflection of Kurt Lewin’s legacy.

The 2024 Kurt Lewin Award Selection Committee:

Denise Sekaquaptewa (Chair)
John Jost
Rudy Mendoza-Denton
Alyssa Zucker


Linda R. Tropp is Professor of Social Psychology and Faculty Associate in Public Policy at the University of Massachusetts Amherst (USA). For more than two decades she has studied how members of different groups experience contact with each other, and how group differences in status affect cross-group relations. Her work seeks to foster the dual goals of promoting positive relations between groups while achieving ever-greater levels of societal equality and justice. She has worked with national organizations on initiatives to promote racial integration and equity, and with nongovernmental organizations to evaluate interventions designed to bridge group differences in divided societies around the globe. A Fellow of the American Psychological Association, Tropp has received distinguished research and teaching awards from the Society of Experimental Social Psychology, the Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues and the International Society of Political Psychology. Dr. Tropp is coauthor of When Groups Meet: The Dynamics of Intergroup Contact (2011) and editor of several books, including Moving Beyond Prejudice Reduction: Pathways to Positive Intergroup Relations (2011), the Oxford Handbook of Intergroup Conflict (2012), and Making Research Matter: A Psychologist’s Guide to Public Engagement (2018).


Previous Winners


2023 Kurt Lewin Award

The 2023 Kurt Lewin Award winner is Dr. John T. Jost, Professor of Psychology and Politics and (by affiliation) Data Science at New York University, where he directs the Social Justice Lab.  In selecting John for this award, the selection committee noted his significant career-long leadership role and advocacy in connecting social and political psychology to address pressing social issues in society, his development and application of system justification theory to help understand the dynamics of intergroup relations and social (in)justice, and, as reflected in his extensive and impactful publication record, his adherence to and promotion of Kurt Lewin’s belief that there is “nothing so practical” as a good theory.

John T. Jost


2022 Kurt Lewin Award

The Kurt Lewin Award, given by the Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues, recognizes “outstanding contributions to the development and integration of psychological research and social action.” The 2022 Kurt Lewin Award winner is Dr. Michael Hogg, Director of the Social Identity Lab at Claremont Graduate University in Los Angeles. Professor Hogg has nearly 400 scientific publications that have been cited more than 115,000 times, and has h-index 130. His current research focuses on the role played by social identity in radicalization, populism and social disintegration, and in translating self-uncertainty into orthodoxy and societal extremism.


Michael A. Hogg


2021 Kurt Lewin Award

The SPSSI 2021 Kurt Lewin Award is being awarded posthumously to Dr. James S. Jackson.  The Lewin Award is SPSSI’s highest scholarly honor and premier career recognition for distinguished research on social issues. As such, we are thrilled to recognize Dr. Jackson’s significant work and impact on our field. Dr. Jackson was nominated for the Kurt Lewin Award for his outstanding contributions to the development and integration of psychological research and social action, and his research on racial health disparities.


James S. Jackson
 



Past award winners and the titles of their spoken addresses:


Past winners sorted by name / Sorted by year

Learn more about the Kurt Lewin Award