CONFERENCE REGISTRATION: The early/presenter deadline has passed (13 April 2025), but you can still register through 21 May 2021. There are currently 842 persons registered (and counting!), making this ISPP’s largest in-person conference in the organization’s history… We will have to wait a bit longer to see if it surpasses the largest ISPP conference attendance ever (which was 2021’s all-virtual conference).
CONFERENCE SCHEDULE/INFORMATION: The Program Chairs have begun work on the conference schedule, and an e-mail will be sent out when the schedule is posted and available. You can find conference information, including poster board dimensions and a list of the closest hotels at www.ispp.org/meetings. Please watch this page and your e-mail for additional information and reminders.
VIRTUAL-ONLY SESSIONS: There will be all-virtual sessions running concurrently to the in-person sessions only on the first day of the main conference. Those who indicated they wanted to present virtually during the submission process were considered for these sessions. There will not be opportunity to present virtually during the in-person conference sessions.
FUTURE CONFERENCE LOCATIONS: Our 2026 location and dates are posted on https://ispp.org/meetings/future/. We are currently working on 2027. But what about 2028 and beyond? Would your university (and city) be a great place to hold ISPP’s Annual Meeting? Let us know! ISPP is now taking suggestions for future (2028 and beyond) conference locations and venues. Please send the ISPP Central Office the contact information for your university’s conference office/coordinator so that we can get in touch and see what might be possible to bring ISPP to your campus!
YOUTUBE: The ISPP YouTube Channel is populated with some content, and we are continuing to add more! You can check it out HERE. Don’t forget to subscribe to the channel – it’s FREE!
ANNOUNCEMENTS: ISPP has split its Announcements pages on our web site to make it easier to find content. Check out ISPP Announcements for all things ISPP; Other Announcements for things that may be of interest to our members, but are not directly related to ISPP; Job Opportunities for current political psychology-related job postings around the globe; and Volunteer Opportunities for any such opportunities related to political psychology. Check back regularly!
QUESTIONS: As always, if you have any questions or concerns regarding your ISPP membership or ISPP benefits or events, please feel free to contact the ISPP Central Office.
Our 2026 Annual Meeting will be held at Newcastle University in Newcastle upon Tyne in the United Kingdom on July 16-19.
If you are interested in hosting a future conference of ISPP, please contact the Central Office to obtain the necessary guidelines and materials.
Call for the Twinning Program
Call for the Twinning Program in English [see below for the call in Arabic, French, Spanish and Turkish]
We are happy to announce that we are still accepting applications for our New Twinning Program among Scholars under Threat (ISPP members who lost their academic positions or their income in direct connection with political persecution and/or to members who have been displaced as a result of political persecution). The New Twinning Program has been set up with the aim of facilitating scholarly collaborations between threatened political psychologists and program partners. These collaborations can offer the opportunity for threatened scholars to continue their academic activities, maintain and advance their careers, and integrate into international political psychology; furthermore, partners can engage in political advocacy on behalf of threatened scholar. We are grateful to the 24 scholars who have already expressed their interest to work together with a scholar under threat as partners. We would kindly like to ask our members to reach out to those scholars within their networks around the world who may benefit from participating.
You can find more information about the Twinning Program here.
ISPP is committed to protecting its members whose academic freedom is at risk anywhere in the world due to the political context where they work or live. ISPP's Scholars Under Threat (SUT) Committee has been working to support ISPP's members at risk. Academic freedom as it relates to both research and teaching is absolutely essential for the advancement of scientific knowledge. The SUT can support academics by providing free membership to ISPP, access to emergency funds for scholars under threat to continue their livelihoods, and access to the ISPP twinning scheme for academics who wish to have mentorship or support from colleagues in less risky contexts. If you or someone you know has had their academic freedom put at risk and feel that you would benefit from ISPP support, please contact us.
Call for Papers – Special Issue in Political Psychology
Special Issue Title: Re-examining Norms of Good Citizenship When Democratic Values are Under Threat
Amid global transformations and mounting challenges to fundamental democratic principles, the role of ‘good citizens’ in fostering resilient, inclusive, and engaged societies is more crucial than ever (Bermeo, 2016; Mauk, 2020). Predominant theoretical approaches to citizenship and even ‘good citizenship’ – typically shaped by Marshall (1950), Almond and Verba (1963), and Dalton (2020) – struggle to capture the complexities and interplay between different norms of good citizenship. Yet these norms are responsible for citizens’ political behaviour, shifting allegiances, and evolving political identities, including their turn towards illiberal practices and their apparent endorsement of an increasingly unstable political and global order (Oser et al., 2023; Schnaudt et al., 2024). Still, academic discourse on norms of ‘good citizenship’ often remains peripheral within broader debates on democratic values, civic education, citizenship politics, and state legitimacy due to the predominance of discipline-focused lenses.
While substantial research explores the variability of citizenship norms in relation to political behaviour and civic engagement (Reichert, 2016; Lane, 2020; Goodman, 2022), significant gaps persist in understanding how these norms are linked to psychological factors such as emotions, collective identities, and ethical behaviour (e.g. Valentino et al., 2008; Smith et al., 2015; Oser et al., 2023). Moreover, scholars remain divided on how individual and contextual factors come together to shape citizenship norms and how these norms influence political attributes in and across different social, cultural, and political contexts (Print & Tan, 2015; Kligler-Vilenchik & Thorson, 2016; Villalobos et al., 2021). Furthermore, the impact of temporal, technological, and socioeconomic changes on the evolution of good citizens and norms of good citizenship remains elusive. This is partly due to the predominance of democracy-centric theoretical approaches, with a growing body of academic scholarship questioning their broader applicability and potential to reinforce exclusionary undertones in contemporary citizenship models (Boatcă & Roth, 2016; Siklodi, 2020; Sharma, 2022).
This Special Issue aims to bring together normative and empirical approaches on citizenship, ‘good citizenship’ and norms of ‘good citizenship’ in order to facilitate a cross-disciplinary dialogue that spans temporal and geographic boundaries. It welcomes studies of liberal democracies, regions with colonial legacies and countries with fragile institutions. Together, the contributions to this issue will help examine the complex interplay between individual, institutional, behavioral and psychological factors that shape contemporary citizenship, advance a more comprehensive theory of the norms of ‘good citizenship’, and examine their implications for the future of democracy, political institutions and public engagement, and civic education.
Key research questions
What does ‘good citizenship’ mean, and how stable is this meaning across time and space?
How do psychological factors, such as emotions, collective identities, and ethical behaviour, shape perceptions of good citizenship and citizenship norms?
What are the main changes in citizenship norms, and which factors (economic, political, psychological, social, etc.) are related to these changes?
How are citizenship norms linked to social, educational, technological, and psychological processes?
How do citizenship norms vary across different socio-political, cultural, geographic, and temporal contexts, and what are the implications of these variations for democracy and civic education?
Interested authors should submit an abstract of up to 500 words, 3-5 keywords, and details of the author(s) (title, institutional affiliation) by email to sinorms@hku.hk by 15 July 2025. Please note, the abstract needs to be clearly aligned with the key themes of this Special Issue and the Aims and Scope of Political Psychology.
Contact Information: For any inquiries regarding the Special Issue, please contact the Guest Editors (sinorms@hku.hk):
Professor Frank Reichert (The University of Hong Kong & The University of Sydney),
Dr. Nora Siklodi (University of Portsmouth),
Professor Murray Print (The University of Sydney)
Submission deadline: 15 July 2025 | More informationCall for abstracts – Political Psychology Special Section
ISPP’s flagship journal, Political Psychology, is issuing a call for submissions for an upcoming special section on empathy and perspective-taking in national security, human security, and conflict settings.
Political Psychology advanced early work on empathy in security, strategy, and policymaking in which published a series of articles by Ralph K. White on “realistic empathy” (White, 1983; 1990; 1991). He defined realistic empathy as understanding how the world looks through another actor’s eyes. Rather than feeling sympathy for another’s plight, realistic empathy entails cognitively understanding another’s perspective without judgment (White, 1967). From his initial conception, the notion of realistic empathy was interdisciplinary, putting psychological processes in strategic and international context. This special section aims to expand upon this past research in Political Psychology and continue the tradition of integrating academic disciplines to inform a richer and more nuanced understanding of our contemporary context.
Empathy in security contexts raises questions around conceptual definitions, theoretical implications, and ethical considerations. We are therefore looking for contributions that advance our understanding of the concept, and its limitations in these contexts. Furthermore, as a lot of work on empathy in strategy has focused on an American perspective, this special section aims to highlight what the concept means in an international context and seeks contributions that will examine the diverse applications of empathy and perspective taking in security and strategy. To this end, it seeks theoretical, conceptual, and empirical contributions from political science, psychology, international relations, and related fields that offer original case studies from around the world.
Potential research questions that this special section might address include:
What are the limits and tensions of empathy in strategy and security settings?
How can strategic empathy be inculcated across and within security organizations and strategic thinking?
Where and how has strategic empathy contributed to reducing insecurity or enhancing engagement with adversaries?
On the other side, how is strategic empathy experienced by adversaries?
How might historical empathy inform contemporary strategy and security thinking?
These are just indicative questions, rather than an exhaustive list. We are especially keen to see a range of regional and national case studies and perspectives from diverse disciplines.
The timeline for this special section will be: Submission of proposals (a short abstract/ summary): May 2025; Decisions made in consultation with the journal’s editorial team, and confirmation to selected authors: June 2025; First draft submission: November 2025; Reviews and decisions by editors: Jan 2026; Second review and final decisions: April 2026.
Submission deadline: May 2025 | More informationCall for papers – Special Issue in Journal of Community and Applied Social Psychology
The Special Issue "The Role of Social Psychology in the Promotion of Sustainable Careers Addressing Global Needs" aims to deepen our understanding of how individual, social, and contextual factors shape sustainable careers, moving beyond a narrow focus on personal success, health, and productivity to emphasize values of global consciousness, social responsibility, and environmental sustainability.
This Special Issue aims to clarify the contribution of community and applied social psychology to understanding the dynamics of sustainable career development and promoting pro-sustainability behaviors: what perspectives are being advanced, what issues are prioritized, and what values are emphasized. We seek studies highlighting the social psychological processes hindering sustainable attitudes and behaviors (Mouchrek et al., 2022), as well as individual resources, such as community-oriented values, personal beliefs, and environmental awareness, that shape sustainable career trajectories. We welcome contributions that examine the impact of social and contextual factors, including cultural values (Chwialkowska et al., 2020) and organizational dynamics, on career sustainability. Community-based approaches to career guidance, as demonstrated by research linking career paths to societal needs (Rochat & Masdonati, 2019) and studies promoting pro-environmental action (Barth et al., 2021) will also be a focal point. This framework will aid in designing interventions that foster sustainability at individual, organizational, and community levels.
We invite submissions of original research articles, qualitative or quantitative, theoretical or methodological contributions, reviews and/or meta-analyses that include but are not limited to:
Topics of interest
We invite articles that address topics such as (but not limited to):
Theoretical models and frameworks for understanding sustainable careers that emphasize collective welfare, societal quality of life, social justice, and global consciousness.
The role of individual differences (e.g., personal, career-related and social resources) in shaping sustainable career choices.
The influence of sense of community, cultural values and group dynamics on promoting career sustainability.
The development and validation of measures of sustainable attitudes and behaviors across social, environmental, and professional domains.
Innovative interventions designed to address urgent issues like globalization, inequalities, and inclusion and to foster global consciousness and sustainable career choices in individuals, organizations, and communities.
Call for Papers – Political Science and the University in Perspectives on Politics
In recent years, universities around the world have been at the center of political controversies. In this call for papers of Perspectives on Politics, we invite political scientists to use their expertise to explain what is and ought to be happening at institutions of higher education. We encourage papers from a range of perspectives, subfields, and approaches within the discipline.
We welcome all kinds of political science research focusing on universities, including both established research agendas investigating universities as political phenomena and work in which scholars apply disciplinary concepts and theories to the case of universities for the first time.
Submission Guidelines
Research articles: traditional academic journal articles. Length: must not exceed 12,000 words, excluding the title, abstract, tables/figures, and the references list.
Reflections: contemplative, provocative, or programmatic essays that address important political science questions and controversies in interesting ways. Length: 6,000-10,000 words, excluding the title, abstract, tables/figures, and the references list.
Call for Papers –JESP Special Issue on "Current Directions in Social Dilemmas Research"
Many of today's global challenges, such as climate change and health crises, have the structure of a social dilemma where individual interest conflict with collective goals. Whereas social dilemma research has a long tradition, with its foundation over six decades ago, the field is changing and recently focusing on new directions. For example, researchers have recently started investigating social dilemma behavior across national borders, including samples from societies currently underrepresented in psychological research. Furthermore, researchers use economic paradigms to investigate current societal crises, such as climate change or health crises, thereby testing the predictive power of some of the established determinants of social dilemma interactions and identifying new ones. Other topics that gained more relevance include the use of new technology (e.g., VR) to examine motives underlying social dilemma behaviors or interdependent interactions with AI agents. This special issue shall be a compilation of new directions in social dilemma research.
This special issue aims to provide a compilation of new directions, mainly in quasi-experimental and experimental social dilemma research, potentially including one or two review articles. Specifically, it can consist of a) experimental studies on social dilemmas across national borders and b) experimental studies that address behavior in real-world social dilemmas such as climate change or health crises. Furthermore, the special issue shall include c) experimental (replication) studies on social dilemma behavior with samples from underrepresented societies. Finally, the special issue will cover d) studies using new technologies (e.g., AI, VR) to understand further the antecedents and consequences of social dilemma behaviors.
Guest Editors
Angela Dorrough (FernUniversität in Hagen, Germany)
Angelo Romano (Leiden University, the Netherlands)
Giuliana Spadaro (VU Amsterdam, the Netherlands)
Shuxian Jin (University of Sussex, the United Kingdom)
Postdoctoral Position on Youth and Peace Science - University College Dublin, Ireland
GENERATION PEACE does not ask how to protect 1.8 billion children in conflict-affected countries. Instead, it shows how youth – one-third of the world’s population – can build peace. This approach challenges the portrayal of youth as perpetrators, and positions youth as a driver of quality peace.
More specifically, this role will quantitatively examine the cross-national impact of youth peacebuilding on quality peace. We will produce a Youth Peacebuilding Indicator (YPI), compatible with cross-national databases, integrating (a) existing data on youth; (b) recode or ‘slice’ existing data to focus on youth; and (c) create additional variables within each domain. Supervised coding and Expert Review will ensure data compatibility and quality. Critical to identifying potential threats to endogeneity, multilevel analyses will be complemented by an instrumental variable test and sensitivity analyses to selection and bias. The relative degree of confidence in the YPI codes will also be modelled.
For full details: search here, then scroll down to:
Search by Reference Number: 018451
Due: noon, Friday, 11 July 2025
Duration: Sept 2025 to August 2026
Research Associate in Social Psychology of Punishment and Intergroup Conflict – University of Jena, Germany
The University of Jena is offering a Research Associate position on a DFG-funded project on punishment and intergroup relations. The successful candidate will be supervised by Dr. Mete Sefa Uysal (University of Exeter) and Prof. Thomas Kessler (University of Jena) and will be working with a fantastic group of international researchers based in Germany, the United Kingdom, and Canada. The position is based at the University of Jena, Germany, with opportunities for short visits to the University of Exeter.
The successful candidate will be filling a part-time (75% / 30 hours per week) position as from 01.10.2025 until 30.09.2028, and is expected to assist the project entitled "Collective Punishment and Intergroup Relations" while working on their own academic qualification project (e.g., PhD).
We are looking for candidates who have a master's degree in psychology; very good knowledge of social psychological theory; very good written and spoken English; interest in planning, conducting and analysing quantitative studies, especially in the field of experimental research; and interest in theoretical and empirical work in the research project CoPIn (e.g., social identity, punishment, cooperation, conflict, collective action).
For questions and informal inquiries, please contact Dr. Mete Sefa Uysal (m.uysal@exeter.ac.uk).
Postdoctoral Researcher on Visual Imaginaries of Gender in Generative AI – University of Amsterdam
Are you interested in exploring the intersection of generative artificial intelligence, art, and gender representation? The University of Amsterdam is seeking a researcher to join an interdisciplinary team cutting across AI, History, and Psychology to map generative AI’s imaginaries of gender.
You will join the Visual Imaginaries of Gender project, a collaboration between the University of Amsterdam, the University of Applied Sciences Amsterdam, Sandberg Institute, and Studio Bertels. You will critically explore how generative AI systems visualise and reimagine gender identities across cultural and historical contexts.
Together, the project team will aim to map the full spectrum of GenAI's artistic interpretations of gender, moving beyond basic bias analysis to understand both limitations and creative potentials. You will navigate between technology, artistic practice, and gender representation using a mixed-methods approach. You will design and implement technical experiments, user studies, and historical contextual analyses that reveal how GenAI shapes our understanding of gender. Through collaborative workshops with artists and creative practitioners, you will gather data and insights that deepen our understanding of artistic use of GenAI.
You will have the freedom to design novel research methodologies that bridge technical and cultural domains. You will collaborate with a highly interdisciplinary team to develop experimental approaches for testing and reimagining GenAI's capabilities. Your creative insights will help transform limitations into new artistic possibilities.
Your experience and profile:
PhD in (Human-Centred) AI, Human-Computer Interaction, Computational Social Science;
Experience in doing interdisciplinary research
Independent and proactive working attitude
Proven track record of academic publishing and communication
Familiarity or experience with artistic research, crowdsourcing, or generative AI are considered a plus, as well as an interest in artistic practice, socio-historical research, or gender representation.
Application deadline: 20 May 2025 | More informationInternational Senior Fellowship Programme – College for Social Sciences and Humanities, Germany
The College for Social Sciences and Humanities offers an excellent academic environment for outstanding international researchers who seek to work on a self-selected research project in close collaboration with local tandem partners from the UA Ruhr. The international Senior Fellowships will be awarded for six monthsand may start on 1 March 2026 or1 September 2026.
Application Requirements
Senior Fellowships will be awarded to advanced and well-established senior researchers (preferably R4 level) who
are active members of a foreign university or research institution (both at the time of application and during the fellowship),
have an outstanding research profile in the social sciences and/or the humanities (proven primarily by a significant track record of excellent publications),
have completed their doctorate at least six years prior to their application, and
seek to initiate or intensify research collaboration with a fellow researcher from the UA Ruhr.
As the Senior Fellowship Programme is based on the principle of collaboration, applicants are required to identify a matching tandem partner from the UA Ruhr prior to their application.
The next ISPPNews will be published in May 2025.
To submit your contributions for ISPPNews please send an email to the ISPP Central Office.
Benefits of your ISPP Membership
Online access to the journal of Political Psychology and Advances in Political Psychology; issues of ISPPNews; ISPP's Teacher's Corner; reduced registration fees at ISPP's Annual Scientific Meetings; discount on selected publications; access to ISPP's Members-only Portal; access to the online member directory; voting rights for ISPP leadership.
Your ideas for further improvements or additions to ISPPNews are welcome! Please let us know what you would like to see here in the future by sending us an email.
ISPP
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