To foster international cooperation between the EAESP and the Society for Personality and Social Psychology (SPSP), two joint activities have been agreed:

the International Teaching Fellowships
the Summer Institute in Social Psychology (SISP)

International Teaching Fellowships

General information

• The scheme supports one-week expert-led graduate schools in Europe and North America. Applications are welcome at any time. Two Fellowships will be awarded each year, one to be hosted in Europe, the other in North America.
• The aims of this scheme are:
  • to foster international cooperation between members of these two organisations;
  • to provide an opportunity for groups of graduate students to receive intensive specialist education from an academic expert from overseas;
  • to provide an opportunity to build links between groups of researchers and research institutions within a geographical region.
• The scheme operates as follows. A host institution (e.g. a university psychology department in North America) arranges an invitation to a distinguished scholar from overseas (e.g. somewhere in Europe) to provide one week of instruction and supervision for a group of graduate students. The host institution, together with other participating departments must cover all the costs of accommodation, meals and entertainment.
• In addition to providing official backing (e.g. the title of the Fellowship) and coordination for this scheme, EAESP and SPSP provide financial and material support. Each Fellow will receive a stipend from EAESP and SPSP amounting to $ 2,000. This may be used to cover travel or other expenses including those of companions.
• The host institution need only have a few graduate students who participate, but must arrange that students from other neighbouring institutions also participate for the full week. At least one, and preferably 2 or more other institutions should send graduate students to participate. The total number of students should be between 8 and 16. The organisation of the week's activities is flexible but should ensure that as many graduate students as possible are able to gain from a mixture of large and small-group or one-to-one interaction with the Fellow. The week should include social as well as academic activity, and should include ways of ensuring that links and communications among the participants are set up on a longer term basis.

Procedure for applications

• One Fellowship will be awarded annually to an institution in Europe and the other to an institution in North America. The host institution organiser must be a member of EAESP or SPSP, respectively. The Fellow visiting North America must be a member of EAESP and the Fellow visiting Europe must be a member of SPSP.
  
• The host organiser should prepare a 2 page application that provides an explanation of how the expertise offered by the Fellow will provide education in an aspect or area that is not normally covered by faculty already working among the host-site group of departments. The application should describe how many students will participate, and from which departments or institutions. In addition there should be a summary of the type of social and extra-curricular activities that will be arranged around the Fellow's visit (e.g. the visit could be attached to the end or start of a conference, there could be other academic events linked to the visit, and there might be a trip to a regional tourist attraction, museum, exhibition, or other event), and what steps will be taken to ensure that the network of participating graduate students is sustained after the conclusion of the Fellow's visit. The application must include a copy of the proposed Fellow's Vita, and a letter from the proposed Fellow stating that, if the Fellowship is granted, he or she will accept the invitation.
  
• Priority will be given to proposals that best meet the criteria of bringing international social psychological expertise to a wider group of graduate students. Applications from institutions that have limited resources or access to such expertise will receive higher priority.
  
• The application should be submitted by email to the EAESP executive officer. Applications are considered jointly by representatives of the Executive Committee of EAESP and SPSP. Proposals must be for meetings to be held at least 6 months later. This allows time for the meetings to be publicised in EAESP and SPSP Bulletins and Newsletters and to ensure that participation is as full as possible. Deadlines for applications are March 15th and September 15th.
  
• After the Fellowship, the host organiser must provide a brief report summarising the week's activities and the list of participants, for publication in the EAESP Bulletin and the SPSP Dialogue

Summer Institute in Social Psychology (SISP)

General information

Modelled on the bi-annual EASP summer schools, which are held in even-numbered years, the Society of Personality and Social Psychology (SPSP) offers comparable two-week intensive summer schools for US/Canadian doctoral students, to be held in the United States in odd-numbered years, beginning in 2003. The first Summer Institute in Social Psychology (SISP) took place at the University of Colorado, Boulder, July 13-26, 2003, the second SISP was be held at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, on July 24-August 6, 2005, the third SISP was held at the University of Texas at Austin , July 15-28, 2007. The next SISP will be held at the Northwestern university in Evanston, Illinois from July 12-25, 2009.

EASP schools are set up primarily for European students, but the organisers also always accept five US-students, selected and sponsored by SPSP. The SPSP schools are similarly set up primarily for USA/Canadian students, but the organisers will also accept five European students, selected and sponsored by the EASP.

Format of SISP

Full length courses
Each student will enrol in one of five full-length courses, each taught by two prominent instructors. For 2009, the instructors and courses are:

(1) Conflict and Negotiation (instructors: Adam Galinsky and Michael Morris)
(2) Emotions in Group and Intergroup Contexts (instructors: Ernestine Gordijn and Eliot Smith)
(3) Biological Basis of Social Behavior and Personality (instructors: Iris Mauss and Oliver Schultheiss)
(4) Prejudice and Stereotyping (instructors: Jack Dovidio and Laurie Rudman)
(5) Relationship Development and Maintenance (instructors: Eli Finkel and Jeff Simpson).

• Three day workshops
  (1) Item Response Theory (instructor: Steve Reise)
  (2) Meta-Analysis (instructor: Blair Johnson), and
  (3) Ambulatory Assessment (instructor: Matthias Mehl)
  

SISP website

Further details can be found on the SISP website (http://www.kellogg.northwestern.edu/marketing/SummerInstitute/index.htm). European students should not apply via SPSP but should follow the instructions listed below.


Application procedure for European students

Interested European students should submit a Curriculum Vitae and they should fill out an application form. Please send it as Word attachment to the EASP Executive Officer Sibylle Classen.

• The application should be supported by the student's Ph.D. supervisor. Supervisors are therefore asked to write a letter of support, explaining why they feel their student could benefit from and add to this summer school. Supervisors are asked to email their letter directly to Sibylle Classen ( mentioning SISP and the name of the applicant supported in the Ref-Field).
• The deadline for applications (and the support letters) is December 31, 2008. Applications and letters of support received after Wednesday, December 31, 2008 will not be considered.

The selection procedure

Among the candidates five students will be selected for participation by the SISP Decision Committee of EASP.

• In making this selection the Committee will rely on the following criteria:
  • at least in the second year of the Ph.D. programme;
  • a sufficient level of (self espoused) proficiency at English;
  • active in an area sufficiently close to a topic of SISP;
  • strength of the supervisor's letter of support;
  • not having participated in an EAESP summer school;
  • definitely not more than one student per institution;
  • a reasonable distribution over countries.
• Decisions will be made and communicated to those selected and not selected by end of January 2009.

Costs and sponsoring

EAESP will sponsor travel expenses to Evanston (and back) for the five selected students, for a maximum of 600 Euro per student. Selected students will be informed regarding the details of payment.

• Each student is expected to contribute a registration fee of 200 US-Dollars to SISP. Details about mode of payment will be communicated to selected students.