Summer Schools
The EASP Summer School typically has a two-year cycle, and we attempt to ensure that this cycle avoids clashing with the General Meetings.
The Summer School is intended to provide graduate students in Europe with the opportunity to come together for a two-week period to receive instruction and supervision from senior social psychologists drawn from Europe and the rest of the world. It also provides graduate students with the chance to meet graduate students from other European countries. Since many of these students go on to become full-time academics, this means that it is possible for even junior academic staff to have an established network of contacts throughout Europe, drawn from fellow participants in a Summer School.
Tutors and Participants
A typical Summer School lasts for two weeks, and consists of five 'workshop' groups of students, with about 12 students in each group. The groups are organised around research themes, and each group is supervised by a tutor whose own research specialisation falls within that theme. This tutor is usually assisted by a second person, who is often recruited from the university staff of institutions in the host country. Efforts are made by the Summer School organiser (who is appointed to this role by the Executive Committee) to achieve a balance of research themes, so that the discipline of social psychology is as far as possible covered. Normally no more than one current member of the Executive Committee acts as a tutor at Summer Schools, and the academic programme of the school is devised in consultation with the Executive Committee.
Because the Summer School takes a great deal of time, effort, and money to organise, and because graduate students are limited to participating in one Summer School, diversity criteria will be applied to encourage applicants from regions that are currently underrepresented in mainstream social psychology, and to include students who are studying a diverse set of research topics. Participants will also be selected on the basis of a motivation letter and the quality of their PhD research programme (rationale, coherence, academic excellence). Ideally, applicants should be EASP members or become members if they are acceped in the summer school.
If you would like to apply to take part in the Summer School, you will need to submit:
• A motivation letter explaining why you would like to take part in the Summer School.
• A description of your PhD research programme. This should include information about timing (starting date and expected completion date), a description of your research topic, the research questions to be addressed, and a description of any studies already planned with objectives, hypotheses and methods to be used. This should be a maximum of two pages.
• A CV (maximum of two pages).
• A reference letter from a senior EASP member (this may or may not be your PhD supervisor). If you have problems with this requirement, please contact the office (office@easp.eu) or diversity officer (g.baysu@qub.ac.uk) to find a solution.
• An indication of your preferred workshop (please provide a first and second choice).
Summer School Activities
The intention is that each of the five workshop groups receives specialist instruction in a particular research topic, and that on the basis of this instruction members of the group design one or more empirical studies that would address key theoretical questions. Given that the schools take place in the summer months, when the supply of potential research participants is limited, it is usually only possible for students to conduct pilot research during the Summer School. The summer school organiser may set aside some sources of support towards the later extension of the planned research at one or more of the participants' home universities.
in total, 2 pictures
Future Summer Schools
If you are interested in hosting a future Summer School, please contact the Executive Officer (office@easp.eu).
Past Summer Schools
Past summer school reports are available for some of the Summer Schools. Click on a summer school event for further details.
Cooperation with other Societies (SPSP and SASP)
The Summer School organizers keep five of the approximately 60 potential Summer School places open for graduate students from North America/Canada (selected by SPSP) and three places for Australasian students (selected by the SASP). This is based on an agreement with SPSP and SASP which, in turn, allows five EASP postgraduate members to attend the SPSP Summer Schools (SISPP) and three to attend the summer school of SASP. For more information, see our joint activities.