Harold Takooshian, Fordham University

The SPSSI New York regional group (SPSSI-NY) was formed back on July 11, 1984 by three young psychologists—Robert Roy Clark, Jeffrey Shaw, and Harold Takooshian—in preparation for SPSSI’s 50th anniversary in 1986. For its first gathering on October 25, 1984, SPSSI-NY heard the legendary Otto Klineberg recall his vivid memory of the inaugural SPSSI meeting at Dartmouth College “on a warm summer Tuesday,” September 1, 1936.

Since then, SPSSI-NY has continuously arranged at least 10 diverse activities per year for its 400 members in greater New York—forums, conferences, workshops and receptions. Some of these were in cooperation with the SPSSI team at the United Nations, which started in 1991.

In 2020-2022, during the COVID lockdowns of New York, SPSSI-NY increasingly partnered with other groups—the Psychology Coalition, the UN (PCUN) and Manhattan Psychological Association (MPA), Fordham Institute, and Psi Chi Psychology Honor Society--to offer about 15 webinars on timely social issues. The largest of these was on March 16, 2021, when Philip G. Zimbardo shared the 50th anniversary of his Stanford Prison Experiment with 1,000 participants in 35 nations, and he coached his vast audience on how to become “Everyday heroes.” A video of Dr. Zimbardo appears at: https://tinyurl.com/jbhva7e2

Since fall of 2022, SPSSI-NY has been able to host 14 diverse in-person activities on timely social issues.  The largest of these was on October 20, 2022, when SPSSI celebrated “75 years of human rights and social justice at the UN.” SPSSI national President Abigail Stewart from Michigan and Executive Director Anila Balkissoon from Washington joined the SPSSI-UN team for this gala forum and awards ceremony, which appears at www.spssi.org/un75.  For any details on SPSSI at the UN, contact David Livert at Del11@psu.edu.

Some other recent SPSSI-NY Activities: (a) A forum with 5 experts on “Behavioral science at the United Nations.” (b) Two forums with attorneys Cory H. Morris and David Leven on “Medical Aid in Dying.”  (c) A forum with Arnaldo and Liz Salinas on “Guardian Angels and public safety in NYC.”  (d) Two forums with activist attorney Jeffrey Deskovic on “Reducing wrongful convictions,” and “Re-integrating exonerees.”  (e) A forum on “Psychohistory and sports” with Paul H. Elovitz. (f) A psychology-law tour of the Bronx Criminal Court.

Some recent SPSSI-NY activities appear at www.spssi.org/ny.  For any details about SPSSI-NY, contact Harold Takooshian at: takoosh@aol.com .

On 10/16/2022, celebration of SPSSI at the United Nations.

 

On 12/9/2022, students participate in the forum on “Guardian Angels and public safety."