Melody Chao
Advances in Cultural Psychology SPSP Pre-conference
Within cultural psychology, East-West comparisons have documented how the human psyche can differ across different cultural contexts. Yet solely focusing on East-West differences does not do justice to the existing diversity within our discipline, and runs the risk of narrowing our understanding of ‘culture’ to something that is specific to some contexts only, and as static and free from any power-dynamics. Therefore, the current theme of this year’s pre-conference is to go beyond East-West comparisons in search of a cultural psychology that is truly (1) global (i.e., studies a wider range of cultural contexts), (2) dynamic (i.e., documents how the psyche may change when people move across socio-cultural contexts), and (3) decolonial (i.e., acknowledges power relationships in the production of knowledge about culture).
If you are interested in learning more about these topics, please attend the virtual Advances in Cultural Psychology Pre-conference at the next Society for Personality and Social Psychology annual conference on Wednesday, February 16, 2022.
Our pre-conference will include a poster session and two data blitz sessions, in which PhD students, Postdocs, and faculty who are at an early career stage (pre-tenure) can present their unpublished research in 5-minute talks.
(Note: Although the SPSP website gives an option for single presenter talks, our pre-conference will NOT feature any single presenter talks. So please don’t select this option.)
Submissions for the data blitz and poster session are now open through November 15th, 2021 though the SPSP submission portal. One data-blitz submission will be selected as the winner of our data-blitz award and will be spotlighted at the conference.
We are also excited to announce the call for the Award for Outstanding Contribution to Cultural Psychology. This award was established to recognize a scholar (or group of scholars) whose work has added substantially to the body of knowledge in cultural psychology, and whose sustained contributions in research, teaching, and/or service have significantly advanced the field.
Individuals may self-nominate or be nominated by others. In addition to the typical nominations of a single individual or collaborative team, we also encourage nominations that revolve around specific themes or topics that could be awarded at the same time to multiple investigators, even if they have not collaborated with each other, and scholars who have contributed to the teaching of cultural psychology. If you have previously nominated someone within the past three years, the nomination will automatically be rolled over to this year if the nominees have not received the award yet.
Nomination materials must include:
1. A letter of recommendation detailing how the nominee’s (or nominees’) work fits the award criteria
2. The nominee’s (or nominees’) current vita in electronic format
These materials should be sent in one email to spspcult...@gmail.com by December 15, 2021. Awardees will be expected to give an award talk at the upcoming Advances in Cultural Psychology Pre-conference.
On behalf of the pre-conference co-chairs
Melody Chao
Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, mc...@ust.hk
Jozefien De Leersnyder
KU Leuven, Belgium, jozefien.d...@kuleuven.be
Andrew Ryder
Concordia University, Andrew...@concordia.ca
Krishna Savani
Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, ksa...@ntu.edu.sg