Dear ISTP members, friends and colleagues,
As we start this year 2026, we wish you all an excellent, inspiring and creative 2026.
The world’s tensions have increased, and many of us are touched, from closer or more far, by the challenges we are all facing; at times, many of us many may feel discouraged.
However, even then, or perhaps more then than in easier times, it is important that we maintain our dialogues with one another, with our friends, families, and colleagues, and also with people who may think and experience things differently. It is also perhaps in such times that a society like ours, of theoretical psychology, can play a special role: for theorising is not an exercise detached from the world: theorising may be a form of engagement with the world, as we have discussed in Belgrade in 2024, as well a form of resistance and creation.
For all these reasons, we are especially happy that we will gather from June 8–12 for the 2026 ISTP conference at Pratt Institute in in Brooklyn, under the theme “Theorizing in Dark Times – Art, Narrative, Politics” https://www.pratt.edu/events/istp-2026-conference-theorizing-in-dark-times-art-narrative-politics/. There are about 260 submitted papers, and so the meeting is very promising.
We wish also to recall that ISTP supports a few travel grants for attending the conference; the deadline is February 1 st; please email a brief description of your estimated travel and attendance costs, your country of residence, and any relevant circumstances to treasurer@istpsychology.org by February 1, 2026. Grant amounts and availability depend on the number of applicants and available funds.
There are also a few student travels awards; to apply, email your CV, a one-page statement outlining your career trajectory, an abstract of your accepted contribution, and documentation of anticipated travel expenses to treasurer@istpsychology.org by February 1, 2026.
There have been discussions within ISTP on the safety of traveling to the US; with the conference organisers we still monitor the situation and will keep you informed as we get closer to the conference.
We will send more ISTP information very soon,
And by then, again all our wishes for this still young year,
Tania Zittoun, ISTP President, Ernst Schraube, Past President, and Kieran O’Doherty, President Elect