Every second year, SASP organises a Summer School for postgraduate students who are members of SASP. It is a fantastic opportunity for postgraduate students from Australasia and overseas to further their knowledge and experience in social psychology and to establish strong networks with academics and postgraduate students in the area.
The 2018 Summer School took place Monday 19 to Sunday 25 February 2018 at the Australian National University’s Kioloa Coastal Campus in Kioloa, New South Wales, Australia (http://www.anu.edu.au/about/campuses-facilities/kioloa-coastal-campus).
There were 3 streams with at least 2 teachers and 15 students in each stream. It is a great venue and will be the perfect time of year! We are waiting on some final confirmation of teachers and will be in touch updating this ASAP. Please contact me with any questions.
A report from the 2018 Summer School can be found here
Themes
Political psychology and public opinion (Marc Wilson, Victoria University Wellington; Danny Osborne, Auckland University),
Is voting an act of affirmation or choice? Is it true that you can tell a politician is lying because their lips are moving? The Political Psychology Stream will provide a rollercoaster ride introducing the historical evolution of the study of political behaviour at the intersection of political science and psychology, some hands-on play with political psychology data, and key topics in contemporary political psychology. Depending on student interest these might include topics such as voting behavior, social networks, protest and activism, environmental politics, political language, and personality and politics.
Professor Marc Wilson, Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand
Marc is a social psychologist by training. His PhD focused on voting in the first proportional representation election in New Zealand in 1996, and about a third of his research since then focuses on the bread and butter of political psychology. As well as teaching research methods and introductory social psychology, he has taught an Honours-level course in Political Psychology since 2004. Marc uses a variety of methods in his research, ranging from large-scale quantitative surveys to discursive qualitative work. He is a national award-winning teacher, and Fellow of the Ako Aotearoa Academy of Tertiary Teaching Excellence.
Dr Danny Osborne, Auckland University, New Zealand
Danny completed his PhD at the University of California, Los Angeles, one of the mainstays of international political psychology. His research is broadly situated at the intersection of intergroup relations and political psychology, which he has taught at the graduate level since 2012. He uses a multi-method approach that combines the precision of experimentation with the generalizability of surveys. In 2017, he received the inaugural Royal Society Te Apārangi Early Career Research Award in Social Sciences for his “prolific research programme which has advanced understanding of the psychological barriers to collective action”.
Leadership and social change (Emina Subasic, University of Newcastle; Dominic Packer, Lehigh University, USA)
Social psychology offers a rich understanding of social change – from social action and protest in the face of injustice, to resolving conflict, enhancing social cohesion and building solidarity across group boundaries. The field has also seen a revival of interest in social aspects of leadership and influence, going beyond intra- and inter-individual analyses to consider group and intergroup aspects. In this stream, we will examine the intersection of these domains to better understand how people are mobilised for change in social relations and develop new paradigms for studying leadership and social change in interaction.
Dr Emina Subasic, University of Newcastle
Emina Subasic examines how people, groups and societies change, arguing that the psychological transformation of the self is at the core of change—that by changing identities we can change society. Emina examines these ideas across a range of contexts, but particularly where mobilisation of political solidarity across traditional intergroup boundaries is called for. She received her PhD from the Australian National University and held an Australian Postdoctoral Fellowship funded by the Australian Research Council. She is lecturer and inaugural Women in Research Fellow at the University of Newcastle.
Dominic Packer, Lehigh University, USA
Dominic Packer investigates the dynamics of dissent, social change and intergroup trust. He is currently associate professor of psychology and associate dean for research and graduate programs in Arts & Sciences at Lehigh University. Dominic received his PhD from the University of Toronto and was a post-doctoral scholar at The Ohio State University. His research has been funded by the National Science Foundation (USA), the Templeton Foundation, and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. He currently serves as associate editor at Group Processes and Intergroup Relations and will join the editorial board at the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology in 2018.
Reconceptualising prejudice (Michael Platow, ANU; http://psychology.anu.edu.au/about-us/people/michael-platow & Martha Augoustinos;
http://www.adelaide.edu.au/directory/martha.augoustinos).
Application process: 15th November 2017 (see form)
Notification of Acceptance: 30th November, 2017
Cost: $450 per student due on confirmation of placement at the summer school (payment details will follow) which covers accommodation, venue, catering. Students will need to find their own transport to and from Kioloa but this will be co-ordinated to reduce costs.
Aims of SASP Summer School
1) establish a network of academics and post-graduate students in social psychology in Australia and New Zealand (and cognate organisations with a few places reserved for postgraduate members of the Asian Association of Social Psychology and the European Association of Social Psychology);
2) expand knowledge of social psychology theory and research through instruction and supervision from senior social psychologists drawn from Australia, New Zealand and the rest of the world; and
3) extend research and team working skills through the design of novel social psychological surveys and experiments with oversight from instructors. Additional SASP funds are available to support the completion of the research projects after the summer school.