Community Catalyst Grant

SPSP seeks to provide small grants to support personality and social psychologists at all levels. This financial support is intended to assist SPSP members from underrepresented groups in their efforts to develop and host meetings to build community and develop professional skills. Applicants should explicitly state how their proposal would serve to build community and professional development skills. Examples could include dinner with an invited speaker, sharing and critiquing job materials, workshopping papers, skills-building workshops, building new networks, and other community-building activities.

Community Building support is not to be used for individuals to attend existing conferences, preconferences at the SPSP Convention, speaker honorariums, or awards. 

Grants may be awarded for an amount of up to $2,000.

Preference will be given to support of developing or building new communities within SPSP. Recipients of the grant must provide a post-event final report summarizing the event and its outcomes.

To apply for the Community Catalyst Grant, applicants must be members of SPSP with current membership in good standing at the time of application.

Evaluation

Your application will be evaluated based on its unique merit and capacity to promote and grow one of our underrepresented communities (including but not limited to gender, sexual orientation, ethnicity and race, and disability). Preference will be given to applications that: 

1. build community (expanding participants’ professional networks) and professional development skills.
2. include activities that develop or build new communities within SPSP, and
3. serve undergraduate students, graduate students, and/or junior scholars.

Priority will also be given to applications that are not a continuation of formerly proposed programs. 

Rider on use of funds

Funds will be made available in one of two ways:

1. Directly payable to another hosting/sponsoring entity OR the recipient’s university. If this method is chosen, a W9 from the payee will be required. Under this arrangement, SPSP is a sponsor and will not be legally or financially responsible for the conference and no contract should be signed under the auspice of SPSP, Inc.
2. Funds hosted at SPSP. If this method is chosen, SPSP will be the host of the meeting and will assume contractual responsibility, including financial, legal, and tax responsibility. Organizers will maintain control of the program content and will work with SPSP staff on budgets/contracts.

In either payment scenario, if the conference does not occur within 12 months of the award, the funds must be returned to SPSP.

The application window is March 31 – June 1 for gatherings held between July and June of the following 12-month period.

Apply Here

1. Basic information:
   1. Name                           
   2. University                       
   3. Department                  
   4. Mailing Address           
   5. Email                           
   6. Phone                          
   7. Title of event
   8. Amount Requested (up to $2,000)      
   9. Anticipated date of proposed conference/meeting 
2. Explanation of the conference and its unique merit/contribution (maximum one page)
3. A one-paragraph description of the project’s relevance to SPSP.
4. The projected outcome of the conference i.e. development of a needed community within SPSP.
5. A tentative budget for how the funds will be used including all expected revenue (other sponsors, registration, etc) AND expenses.
6. Responsible persons (up to 3).  Please include their CVs and their membership history of SPSP.
7. Agreement to recognize SPSP’s sponsorship at the meeting. For example, a relevant statement such as “This meeting was funded through the Society of Personality and Social Psychology Community Grant Program.”  

2022

Group for Navigating the Hidden Curriculum in Psychology (HICCUP)

Supporting psychologists from underrepresented racial groups is essential for dismantling systemic barriers in our field. It is also an important effort within SPSP— underrepresented racial groups currently account for a combined 32% of SPSP members. Group for Navigating the Hidden Curriculum in Psychology  (HICCUP), an initiative proposed by Grace Flores-Robles and Nirupika Sharma, aims to foster a supportive network for underrepresented members of SPSP. HICCUP began as a blog and professional development workshop, with the goal of increasing retention rates among underrepresented graduate students in psychology and promoting diversity and inclusion within our Society. Their first meetup took place during the 2023 SPSP Annual Convention, and the group has also created a website: https://www.hiccup-psych.com. 

2021

Disability Advocacy and Resources Network (DARN!)

The Disability Advocacy and Research Network (DARN) held a virtual mentoring lunch with more than 20 attendees at SPSP’s 2022 Convention. DARN mentors Lisa Aspinwall and David Myers led a discussion on the topics of advocacy and community, while Kathleen Bogart and Katie Wang led a discussion on disability research. These DARN mentors also presented a professional development panel on Navigating Disability in Academia. We launched our website, darndisability.org in February, and our listserv has grown to nearly 200 members. DARN will continue to hold quarterly Free-Form Friday meetings. We are looking forward to holding virtual AND in-person mentoring luncheons at SPSP’s 2023 Convention! For more details, visit darndisability.org.

Here and Queer: SPSP Social for LGBTQ+ Students and Early Career

The Here and Queer event series aims to lower barriers to inclusion by fostering community-building and tailored social networking opportunities. Informed by participation in discussions via social media and SPSP’s Free-Form Friday sessions, the series focuses on supporting student and early-career SPSP members who stand to benefit most from early and consistent opportunities to build community.

If you are an LGBTQ+ student or early-career member of SPSP and are interested in joining HQ’s Discord group, please sign up via https://discord.gg/dGXbJSDPEJ. If you have any additional questions, please contact Stephanie Tepper at [email protected].

2020

SPSP Network of Multiracial Scholars (NOMS)

Flourish: A retreat for pre-tenure faculty of color

Southeast Asian Social and Personality Psychologists Meeting

¡PODER! A Latinx Community Building Retreat (Psicologxs Orgullosxs De la Raza)

Connecting Undocumented Social & Personality Psychologists (CUSPP)

2019

Flourish: A retreat for pre-tenure faculty of color

SEASAPP (Southeast Asian Social and Personality Psychologists)

Marginalia Science

2018

Marginalia Science Meet-Up

2017

Black Social and Personality Psychologists Retreat (BLaSPR)

Questions? Please contact Crystal Moore at [email protected].