"The impact of the war in Ukraine for ISPP and our discipline"
As many colleagues in Eastern/ Central Europe are implicated directly or indirectly by the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the war in the region, we are likely to see a deep drop in submissions for conferences, publications, and broader scholarly outputs from this part of the world. In addition to displaced Ukrainian scholars, many Polish, Slovakian, Romania, Moldovan, Serbian, Hungarian, Belarusian, and Russian colleagues are now dedicating their time to humanitarian efforts in the region. As a few have said to me personally ‘we know no work will get done for months because this is the priority right now.’ This war, like others before it, will impact career trajectories, professional commitments like ISPP service, journal review practices, authorships, and threatens to leave a significant gap in our discipline, compromise diversity, etc. for the long horizon ahead. We can also anticipate this is more likely to affect early career scholars, women, and those with caring responsibilities.
I would like us to think together about how ISPP can help address this multifaceted problem. Our Scholars Under Threat (SUT) team is alert and ready to provide help to ISPP colleagues under threat. If you or someone you know would benefit from this service, please direct them to SUT (webpage and email).
The needs of our members and indeed the political psychology scholarship are deeper and wider than what our dedicated SUT team can address, as this war affects colleagues in many different ways. As during other conflicts and wars, many of us have been donating funds, asking our institutions to become a University of Sanctuary, and reaching out to do more via Cara, the Council for At-Risk Academics.
Having learned valuable lessons from other conflicts, there are some good practices we can implement in the immediate and near term, together as a society:
We can reference our colleagues’ work and promote their scholarship conscious of the impact this conflict has on their careers.
We can nominate our colleagues for awards to recognize and celebrate their academic achievements.
We can remain aware of the stresses they face and take on some of the responsibilities they want to off-load if they need to take time off from work and commitments and direct their energy where it is most needed.
We can accommodate their request for a ‘work break’ as needed.
We can raise dedicated scholarship funds to use them at later times as needed. There are many opportunities available for immediate needs but please also consider donating to our SUT fund.
We can plan regional events to showcase novel research. Online events are great for drawing attention to cutting-edge work and ISPP can help organize these events with some local help.
We can submit proposals for panels and roundtables at our annual ISPP conference and support travel through the ISPP travel grants program.
We can recommend colleagues to teach at our ISPP Academy.
At ISPP we have the capacity to take stock of suggestions and plan actions ahead with the aim to promote political psychology scholarship around the globe. Our ISPP Diversity team has representatives in our Conference, Initiatives, and Communications VP committees and this will allow us to maintain a broad focus across activities. If you have suggestions on how to promote and support the scholarship of colleagues impacted by wars and conflicts, for the immediate/short term and also long term, we welcome your input.
Tereza Capelos
ISPP President
Save the dates! ISPP's upcoming meetings
Our 2022 Annual Meeting is planned to be held 14-17 July 2022 in Athens, Greece.
Our 2023 Annual Meeting is planned to be held 9-11 July 2023 in Montréal, Québec, Canada.
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.
Assistant Professorship in Political Psychology, University of Cambridge, UK
The Department of Psychology invites applications for a University Assistant Professorship to be taken
up from 1 October 2022, or as soon as possible thereafter. The successful applicant will have expertise in political psychology from a cognitive and social perspective. Interdisciplinary and collaborative research is strongly encouraged across the university and its associated institutes. Candidates must also demonstrate a firm commitment to teaching at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels within the Department. Experience of undergraduate teaching leadership roles is essential.
Two Postdoctoral Fellowships in International Security Studies, University of St. Gallen, Switzerland
Behavioral Security Studies
The first fellowship is intended to promote policy-relevant scholarship using the tools and methods of behavioral social science. The successful candidate will be well-versed in experimental research design and advanced data (statistical) analysis techniques. They are expected to contribute to the institute's ongoing research relating to the use of armed drones in warfare. In addition to their academic research, the fellow will be expected to contribute to dissemination and consultation with relevant policy stakeholders.
Nuclear Strategy & Arms Control
The second fellowship is intended to promote training and policy-relevant scholarship in three interrelated areas: nuclear weapons policy in a changing global context; nuclear terrorism and transnational flows of materials and knowledge; and arms control and nonproliferation challenges.
In addition to their academic research, the fellow will be expected to organize the institute's nuclear politics working group, produce a policy-relevant article, policy brief, and/or contributions to reputable online platforms. | More information
Early-Career Fellowships in Religion and the Public Sphere Religion, Spirituality, and Democratic Renewal
The Religion, Spirituality, and Democratic Renewal (RSDR) Fellowship of the Social Science Research Council (SSRC) aims to bring knowledge of the place of religion and spirituality into scholarly and public conversations about renewing democracy in the United States. These fellowships are offered by the SSRC Program on Religion and the Public Sphere with the support and partnership of the Fetzer Institute.
Two postdoctoral positions, New York University Abu Dhabi
Dr. P.J. Henry is inviting applications for two, two-year Post-Doctoral Associate positions at New York University Abu Dhabi (NYUAD) in the area of social and political psychology to start September 2022 (starting date negotiable).
One Post-Doctoral Associate will work on quantitative research projects in political psychology, gender, sex roles, sexuality, and inequality. Experience working with archival data sets and/or large survey data sets (e.g., ANES, GSS, WVS), and with interdisciplinary research (e.g., sociology, gender studies, political science) is a plus. Expertise or experience with sophisticated statistical analysis is important, especially multilevel modeling.
The other Post-Doctoral Associate will help manage a longitudinal survey of social and political attitudes of NYUAD students, including beliefs relevant to globalization, social dominance, abstract/neoliberalism, inequality, gender, identity, and a range of current political issues such as climate change, migration, and pandemics. Experience with survey methodology, social media, Qualtrics, coordinating with campus administration and student life, and an enthusiastic personality is a plus. Strong quantitative skills are important.
ERC-funded PhD Studentship in Psychology – “The psychological causes and consequences of social inequality,” University of Kent
The studentship, starting in September 2022, will be part of the ERC-funded grant project titled “The Psychology of Public Policy: Inequality, Immigration and International Relations.”
The project aims to investigate how people’s political attitudes develop and change over time, and how they affect the social structure. It involves two largescale data collection initiatives – a four-wave longitudinal survey of 50,000 adults and an eight-wave longitudinal survey of 20,000 adolescents. The adult survey also involves the use of a custom app that enables nested studies – specifically, experiments and experience sampling studies. The adolescent survey includes full network information for each participant, enabling the use of network analysis. Each survey is fairly extensive, allowing for the inclusion of a wide range of concepts relevant to the project’s objectives (see below) and the student’s research interests.
Scholarships for PhD Study in Political Science, Trinity College Dublin, The University of Dublin
The Department of Political Science invites applications for a four-year fully funded PhD studentship at Trinity College Dublin. Application for financial support is automatically considered as part of the normal admissions process. The Department typically provides financial support in the form of tuition grants, stipends (currently €15,500 per year), teaching and research assistantships, and support for postgraduate conference and research travel.
Prospective students are encouraged to consult the webpages of members of staff to check if staff research interests match their proposed projects. General enquiries may be directed to the Ph.D. Director, Jesse Dillon Savage. Further details of the Ph.D. programme can be found here.
Call for Submissions: 22nd Jena Workshop on Intergroup Processes, Castle Eyba, Eyba/Saalfeld, Germany, June 30th – July 2nd, 2022
The aim of the 22nd Jena Workshop is to bring together researchers who are interested in the determinants and consequences of national identity. This in-person workshop aims to stimulate further theorizing and empirical research on nationalism, patriotism, societal solidarity and cohesion, determinants and consequences of national identity and attachment such as intergroup prejudice, ethnocentrism, and intergroup conflict.
The Role of Emotions in Interethnic Relations, EASP Small Group Meeting, Utrecht, September 7-9th, 2022
The proposed meeting aims to connect scholars examining emotion expression and perception in the context of interethnic relations. We therefore invite work from diverse domains of social psychology, including intergroup emotions, emotion expression, acculturation, social identity, collective action, or communication research, among others. The meeting aims to contribute to understanding a) emotions felt toward an ethnic outgroup and their implications, and b) reactions to emotions expressed by an ethnic outgroup. Both may provide valuable insight on how to promote equal treatment of ethnic minority groups and improve interethnic relations. If you are interested in participating, submit your abstract via this form.
Call for Papers (Special Issue), Contemporary Threats, Surveillance, and the Balancing of Security and Liberty
In this Special Issue, we (Eva-Maria Trüdinger, Jolanda van der Noll & Conrad Ziller) aim to bring together social scientists working on how threats and government responses to these threats (such as surveillance) shape citizens’ attitudes and behaviors toward the political system or particular policies. Specifically, we encourage scholars to submit research addressing one or more of the following questions:
- How do citizens respond to state surveillance during threatening times?
- What are the consequences of threats and/or state surveillance for public attitudes toward the political system?- How do social and political trust affect attitudes towards far-reaching government measures?
- Do citizens psychologically process different forms of threat differently? What are the political consequences of these perceptions of individual and collective threats?
- Do citizens deliberately outweigh goals such as provision of security, personal freedoms, and democratic principles? How do contextual factors influence this process?
- How does a citizen's position on surveillance and/or other domestic security policies influence their engagement in different forms of political participation?
- To what extent do experiences with and support for state surveillance differ between sub-groups (e.g., visible minorities)?
- How do new technologies and forms of data collection transform state surveillance and attitudes toward surveillance and other potential restrictions of civil liberties?
- What determines citizens’ (non-)compliance with far-reaching government measures to contain different kinds of threat?
- What are the public’s ethical concerns of new technologies for state surveillance, especially regarding democratic legitimacy?
The next ISPPNews will be published in May 2022.
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
P.O. Box 1213 Columbus, NC 28722 USA
1+828-894-5422 www.ispp.org
