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SPSSI Conferences

Research as Seed, Teaching as Root, Action as Bloom:
Foundations for a Just Future

As communities worldwide navigate an era of unprecedented challenges, SPSSI invites submissions from scholars, educators, activists, and practitioners whose work addresses pressing social justice issues for its annual conference, “Research as Seed, Teaching as Root, Action as Bloom: Foundations for a Just Future.” This year’s conference will be held in Portland, Oregon–the City of Roses–a symbol of the potential, beauty, and challenges that accompany progress and change. As Portland and communities across the globe work to address social, economic, and environmental challenges, we must ask ourselves how to create and maintain healthy, just futures: What must be replanted? What needs to take deeper root? What strong roots need better conditions to fully bloom? What protections must we cultivate to defend our growth?

This year’s theme centers on growing vibrant, healthy, and flourishing communities, highlighting essential stages of transformative work: planting seeds through research, cultivating strong, deep roots in classrooms and communities, and fostering actions that bloom into lasting impact. Yet, for growth and blooms to truly flourish, hard-won progress toward justice must also be protected. Just as a rose’s thorns defend its growth, we need strategies that nurture and safeguard against threats. Collectively, through policy, education, grassroots activism, and scholarship, our work can cultivate a thriving future for all.

In this spirit, we invite submissions that address a wide range of crucial topics, including, but not limited to, racial and economic justice, health and well-being, political polarization, educational equity, healthcare access, gender equality, LGBTQ+ rights, climate change and environmental justice, immigration, and human rights. As we navigate long-standing issues with fresh relevance, and confront new challenges, we welcome submissions that not only seek to inform but also to transform. Join us as we envision and develop strategies for a flourishing future amidst and beyond the uncertainties of today.

Conference Registration is Now Open!

Did you know, across conference rates, it is often cheaper to join SPSSI and register at the member rate? Join SPSSI today to take advantage of this valuable offer!

Early Bird Registration ends May 15th!


In an ongoing effort to meet the economic needs of our many constituencies, SPSSI is pleased to continue a special category of rates for the 2025 Summer Conference.  SPSSI's Regional rates apply to conference attendees residing in the Caribbean, Latin America, Asia, Africa, and Oceania. Across all rates, further reductions or hardship requests will be considered on a case-by-case basis.

 

Apply to be a mentor today!

SPSSI’s Diversity Committee is hosting a Mentoring Event at the 2025 SPSSI Conference in Portland, OR. The event will take place at the conference hotel on Saturday June 28th during the conference lunch break. If you would like to serve as a Mentor at this special event, please follow this link to complete the application by Friday April 4th:

https://mst.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_0BAx3LRBPMiMkBw

If you have any questions, please contact Jessica Cundiff. 

#SPSSICON25 will be at the Hilton Portland Downtown!

Hilton Portland Downtown
921 SW Sixth Avenue
Portland, OR 97204, US
(Map)

SPSSI’s Room Block is now open!  We have a limited number of rooms available at a discounted group rate of $189 for non-students and a student rate of $159.  Our room block always fills up, so be sure to book early!  Please note, rooms are subject to availability.  Questions about reservations?  Contact spssicon@spssi.org.

Register for a Pre-Conference Workshop!
Thursday, June 26, 2025

Cost:  Students - $45  |  Non-Students - $65

Policy Preconference Workshop: Navigating the Research-to-Policy Pipeline: How the Pros Get Evidence to Policymakers

Graduate Student Preconference Workshop: Study (In)Action: Psychology’s duty to Public Policy

Meet Your Keynote Speakers

2025 Opening Keynote
Dr. María Elena Torre
Friday, June 27, 2025

María Elena Torre, PhD, is the Founding Director of the Public Science Project and faculty member in Critical Psychology and Urban Education at The Graduate Center of the City University of New York and the Community, Liberation, Indigenous, and Eco-Psychologies doctoral program at the Pacifica Institute. A queer mama of a very cool teenager, she has been engaged in critical participatory action research nationally and internationally for nearly 30 years with communities in neighborhoods, schools, prisons, and community-based organizations fighting for structural justice. Co-author of the Essentials of Critical Participatory Action Research (APA Press) and co-editor of PAR EntreMundos: A Pedagogy of the Americas (Peter Lang), her writing and research looks at how decolonizing methodologies, radical inclusion, and a praxis of solidarity can inform a participatory public science for a just world.

 

2025 SPSSI Presidential Address
Dr. Heather Bullock
Saturday, June 28, 2025

Dr. Heather Bullock is Professor of Psychology and Director of the Center for Economic Justice and Action at the University of California, Santa Cruz. As a community-engaged social psychologist, Bullock’s research focuses on women’s experiences of poverty and homelessness, and how classism, racism, and sexism influence policy attitudes and the treatment of low-income women and their families. She served as inaugural chair of the APA’s Committee on Socioeconomic Status and received an APA Presidential Citation for her contributions to the field. Her most recent books include Poorly Understood: What America Gets Wrong about Poverty (with Mark Rank and Lawrence Eppard), and The Psychology of Poverty, Wealth, and Economic Inequality (with Deborah Belle). As an APA/AAAS Congressional Fellow with the U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions – Democratic Office, Bullock worked for Senator Edward M. Kennedy on policies related to poverty, food insecurity, and early childhood education. 

 

2025 Kurt Lewin Address
Dr. Abby Stewart
Saturday, June 28, 2025

Dr. Abigail Stewart is Sandra Schwartz Tangri Distinguished University Professor Emerita of Psychology and Women's and Gender Studies at the University of Michigan. She is past director of the Women’s Studies Program and the Institute for Research on Women and Gender, as well as an associate dean in the College of Literature Science and the Arts and the Rackham Graduate School, at the University of Michigan. She was the first director of UM ADVANCE from 2002 to 2016. She has a Ph.D. in Psychology and Social Relations from Harvard University, an M.Sc. in Social Psychology from London School of Economics, and a B.A. from Wesleyan University. Her research interests include political activism, lifespan development and change in the context of experience and social history, and institutional change toward greater diversity, equity and inclusion in higher education. Author of many academic articles and books, she is coauthor with Virginia Valian of An Inclusive Academy (MIT Press, 2018) and with Sarah Fenstermaker of Gender, considered: Feminist reflections across the US social sciences (Palgrave/Macmillan, 2020).

 

2025 Closing Keynote
Dr. Brian Smedley
Sunday, June 29, 2025

Brian D. Smedley is an Equity Scholar and Senior Fellow at the Urban Institute, where he conducts research and policy analysis to address structural and institutional forms of racism that impact the health and well-being of people of color.  Among the programs he leads at the Urban Institute is “Unequal Treatment at 20,” an effort to accelerate progress toward health care equity by identifying key policy levers and advancing a new research agenda focused on dismantling all forms of racism in health care training and clinical settings.  Formerly, Dr. Smedley was Chief of Psychology in the Public Interest at the American Psychological Association (APA), where he led APA’s efforts to apply the science and practice of psychology to the fundamental problems of human welfare and social justice.  In this role, Dr. Smedley was deeply involved in APA’s historic apology for psychology’s contributions to scientific racism and plans to correct this history and advance an anti-racist agenda in the discipline.  A national thought leader in the field of health equity, Dr. Smedley got his start in Washington, D.C. in 1993 as an APA Congressional Science Fellow, and subsequently served at APA as Director of Public Interest Policy.  

2025 Conference Co-Chairs
 

     

     

SPSSI 2025 Conference Co-Chair
Tessa L. Dover
Portland State University
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SPSSI 2025 Conference Co-Chair
Giselle Laiduc
Santa Clara University
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Past SPSSI Conferences:

SPSSI presents special programming each year at the APA Convention as well. Find more information here.