I have attended a lot of academic conferences over the years and I’ve almost always had the same thought after leaving each one: “What would make this conference even better? More sex on the program!” But it turns out I wasn’t the only one thinking this. Several of my colleagues have also noticed that many of our major conferences have a serious lack of sexuality programming, so we got together and decided to take matters into our own hands. The fruit of our labor is the first ever Sexuality Pre-Conference to be held at the 2014 meeting of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology (SPSP).
This pre-conference will be held on Thursday, February 13th, 2014 at the Convention Center in Austin, Texas. Our tentative line-up of speakers includes a number of sex research superstars: Sari van Anders, Jose Bauermeister, Lisa Diamond, Marti Haselton, and Terri Conley. Their talks will cover a wide range of topics, including sexual orientation, sexuality and stigma, as well as endocrinological and evolutionary perspectives on human sexuality. There will also be a roundtable discussion at the end of the day.
To learn more about this exciting pre-conference and to register for it, please visit sexatspsp.com. Registration fees include catered breakfast and lunch, as well as an afternoon coffee and snack break. Students, postdocs, and recent graduates are eligible for a discounted registration fee. Please note that this pre-conference is limited to 80 attendees, so register early to guarantee yourself a spot and make history by being part of this first-time event!
If you’re already planning to attend SPSP, this is a great way to add more sex to your program. And if you’re a sex educator or researcher, this pre-conference is a great excuse to come to SPSP! However, you do not need to register for the main conference in order to come to our pre-conference. Hope to see you in Austin in February for a full day of sex!