Statement From EPA on systemic racism
In this moment when the institutional and systemic racism of our culture has been brought into focus by worldwide condemnation of the callous and brutal murder of Black individuals by the police, the EPA Board of Directors is considering our responsibility as a scientific organization to reduce racism. We are taking an uncomfortable look at ourselves as professionals and EPA as an organization. Although none of us condones the inequalities in education, health care, and justice that are systemic in our country, we recognize that we cannot remain silent about them while fulfilling our mission to present and advance the science of psychology in our annual meetings. We need to acknowledge that the lack of diversity within the leadership of EPA reflects the fact that we have not had an intentional and organized strategy to include and support our colleagues of color. This is unacceptable. Therefore, EPA is developing an action plan that builds upon the science of psychology to address the inequities and racism that we and many others have identified.
Our plan of action includes: 1] a commitment to themes for our next two meetings that specifically address aspects of systemic racism in historical context (2021) and in our educational system (2022); 2] a commitment to recruiting and mentoring members of underrepresented groups into the EPA leadership and conference programming; 3] a commitment to the long-term by establishing concrete, measurable actions to be met annually and that will be shared with our community. This needs to be a long-term commitment as only sustained effort will bring about change. This year for the first time we have some content contributed by the SPARK Society, an organization of cognitive scientists of color, as a part of our meeting. We will work to include more organizations like SPARK. Psychological research has shown all too clearly that bias is a part of everything we do; EPA as a scientific society is committed to finding ways to mitigate that bias within ourselves and the wider world.
Virtual Meeting, June 17-18
June 10 update: The EPA Board of Directors and the EPA Program Committee are pleased to invite you to attend EPA’s 2020 Virtual Conference on June 17 and 18. The program begins June 17 at 8:00 AM, EDT, with President Amy Learmonth's Welcome. You may login anytime between 7 and 8 AM. The full program, including abstracts, and the daily calendar are available for download here. Please use those resources to plan your time at the conference. However, if you happen to miss something on June 17-18, you will have 90 days to view what you missed (or want to view again) in On-Demand mode. To attend the virtual conference, you will go to the following link on June 17:
https://event.vconferenceonline.com/microsite/html/login.aspx?id=1569&rlp=1
Login instructions were sent to all members on June 10.
Helpful tips for getting the most from our virtual conference are available here.
See you online.
June 8 update: The EPA virtual meeting is a little more than one week away. After months of planning, the EPA Board of Directors and its Program Committee are very excited to present a virtual meeting that includes 10 exciting keynote lectures, hundreds of posters, dozens of papers, symposia and workshops, all available from the comfort and safety of your home. EPA has partnered with vConference to provide two full days of a virtual meeting followed by a 90-day period of on-demand viewing. Login information as well as tips for how best to enjoy the virtual conference will be sent shortly to the email address of all members who registered for the Boston conference. The final program, including virtual conference number codes, and the at-a-glance calendar are available here.
MaY 7: EPA Virtual UpDATE
Step-by-step instructions explaining how to submit your presentation were sent to your email address. A video of the process for poster presenters is available here. If you did not receive the email, please let us know by writing to: 2020epavirtual conference@gmail.com. In a separate mailing on May 1, we sent login information that will allow you to complete the process by May 31. With your help, we’ll be able to make “virtual” real!
Announcing: EPA Virtual Conference 2020
The EPA Board of Directors is pleased to announce the dates of the EPA 2020 Virtual Meeting as June 17-18, 2020. The meeting will be very similar to the Boston meeting in terms of content and organization – all using the platform vConferenceOnline. You will even have an opportunity to ask questions during the virtual meeting via live chat.
In addition, following the virtual meeting, you will be able to access the meeting On-Demand for 90 days. That means: you will not have to choose among presentations that occur at the same time, as you would at a physical conference. You may attend any presentation you missed virtually, by attending On-Demand at your leisure.
What about exhibitors? No problem; they’ll be present virtually and On-Demand also. Have a question about a book title, professional service, or graduate program? You can ask our exhibitors during the virtual conference ‘live chat’ or by leaving your questions and your contact information for follow-up.
Finally, the virtual meeting will enable more attendees from around the country and world to attend, including those who have traditionally found it challenging to participate in the meeting. If you have already paid your membership for this year, you will have access to the virtual meeting. If you were not planning to attend the Boston meeting, but would like to attend the virtual conference, you need only join or renew your EPA membership.
In a few days, you will be receiving instructions for submitting your previously accepted posters, papers, workshops and keynote addresses. In addition to your slides, you will be able to post a video, your photograph, and even design your poster board space (booth). Note that we are not accepting new submissions for this year’s conference, but we welcome you to attend the conference as 2020 members or associates. We are excited to offer you this opportunity to participate in EPA’s 2020 conference. We hope you share our excitement, and we look forward to seeing you online. Please mark your calendars.
Stay safe, stay heathy.
Virtual EPA 2020
We will be announcing plans for our Virtual Conference shortly. In choosing a platform for the meeting, our goal has been to create an on-line event that simulates the physical conference as closely as possible. We think we have achieved that. In vConference (www.vconferenceonline.com), all of the content of the physical conference will be retained. During the virtual conference itself, you will be able to interact with presenters and others via chat. Ask your questions and get them answered in real time. In addition, you won’t miss any content due to schedule conflicts because the conference will be available for viewing On Demand for 90 days beyond the virtual conference. Our exhibitors also will be present to showcase their books, graduate programs, and professional services. You’ll be able to chat with them as well, request materials and share your contact information with them; all from the leisure of your living room. EPA 2020 will be more than digital – it will be Virtual.
EPA 2020 Cancelled
March 9: Based on the latest public health authority information on coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), and careful deliberation and consideration, the EPA Board of Directors has decided to cancel the physical gathering of EPA 2020 in Boston. We are looking into ways to distribute conference materials virtually or online in the near future, which will allow us to disseminate the important scientific work that you all do. We will announce details of the plan as soon as possible.
This decision comes as we have been closely monitoring the growing COVID-19 outbreak, and the advisories from the Massachusetts Department of Public Health, the CDC, and WHO. Many countries, agencies, and institutions have now banned travel, and several communities have recommended self-quarantining, in order to limit the spread of the disease. Many scientific conferences have been cancelled, including the Cognitive Neuroscience Society, and, tellingly, the Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections. For these reasons, we have decided to transition to a virtual or online conference.
We recognize that this decision will significantly inconvenience many of you. But this decision is based on safeguarding the health of our members, staff, the Boston and surrounding communities, and your own communities, and considers the recommendations of public health authorities about limiting large public gatherings.
We will be in touch with all registered attendees soon with more information, as well as with details about the plan to disseminate your work. We appreciate your patience as we work through this unprecedented situation and ask that you please hold off on contacting us until we have more detailed information to communicate.
To our Members, Fellows and Associates:
Like you, we are disappointed and frustrated that we have had to cancel the EPA conference. Like you, we have put in many hours and resources for the planning of this meeting and like you, we were looking forward to the personal interchange that can occur only at a meeting. Nevertheless, events beyond our control have necessitated this action.
A few of you have asked about a refund of your “registration fee.” Please understand that EPA does not charge a registration fee for its meeting. Rather, we ask you to join EPA, to become a member, or associate member of EPA. That membership confers privileges including: 1] submission of an abstract for peer reviewed consideration, 2] presentation of accepted abstracts at the meeting, 3] publication of your accepted abstract in the program book of abstracts (which may be cited in your CV), 4] attendance at the meeting, including all poster sessions, keynote addresses, symposia and workshops. Due to events beyond our control, we cannot deliver on #4. Nevertheless, we are planning to provide a substitute for the physical meeting as a virtual or online meeting, the details of which are still being developed.
We appreciate your membership and we hope you will renew it for years to come. In its long history, this is the first time EPA has had to cancel a conference. We hope it’s the last.
Best luck and good health,
EPA Board of Directors
The REviews are Completed.
Letters of acceptance and non-acceptance were mailed on December 27. If you didn't receive one or the other, please check your Junk Mail folder. If you still can't find a letter, please write to: Epaexecofficer@gmail.com. The schedule of presentations will be available on our website in a few weeks. We look forward to seeing you in Boston.
The schedule is available at the following link. Find your name in the index and look up your presentation date and time.
The 2020 mobile app can be loaded here.
WHO WE ARE
Eastern Psychological Association (EPA) was founded in 1896 and is the oldest of the regional Psychological Associations in the United States. Its sole purpose is to advance the science and profession through the dissemination of professional information about the field of Psychology. EPA achieves this goal by conducting its annual meeting where the members of EPA present the latest advances in professional and scientific work to their colleagues. EPA welcomes psychologists from all fields across the discipline.
By becoming a member of Eastern Psychological Association, you 'join hands' with a group whose interests are as varied as the field itself. EPA proudly counts Psychologists of every stripe as members from clinicians to neuroscientists; from experimental psychologists of every type to applied psychologists in private practice, industry and the military. EPA represents all of the richness of our field, and EPA welcomes you to the community of psychology. We encourage you to join and be an active participant. Read More
