Announcing The 2nd Annual SPSP Sexuality Pre-Conference!

I have attended a lot of psychology conferences over the years and, after many of them, I often thought to myself: “What would have made this conference even better? More sex talks!” I’m far from the only one who has had this thought, though. Several of my colleagues have noticed that many of our major conferences are lacking when it comes to sexuality programming, so we took matters into our own hands and, earlier this year, we put on the first ever Sexuality Pre-Conference prior to the 2014 meeting of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology (SPSP). The Pre-Conference was a huge success–it was very well-attended and received rave reviews. As a result, turning this into an annual event seemed like a no-brainer!

The next SPSP Sexuality Pre-Conference will be held on Thursday, February 26th, 2015 at the Convention Center in Long Beach, California. Our current line-up of speakers and talk titles is as follows:

-Meredith Chivers: “What Turns Us On? Gendered Sexual Response and the Specificity of Sexual Arousal”

-Gurit Birnbaum & Eli Finkel: “The Fragile Spell of Desire: A Functional Perspective on Changes in Sexual Desire across Relationship Development”

-Justin Lehmiller: “Taking Sex Seriously: Best Practices for Teaching Undergraduate Human Sexuality Courses”

-Monique Ward: “Our Scripted Sexuality: How Media Exposure Contributes to the Sexual Attitudes, Experiences, and Sexualization of American Youth”

-Justin Garcia: “Childhood Family Structure and the Regulation of Sociosexuality across the Lifespan”

In addition, there will be a sex data blitz in which selected attendees will present some of their latest research findings, as well as a roundtable discussion featuring the invited speakers at the end of the day.

To learn more about this exciting pre-conference and to register, please visit this site. Registration fees include morning and afternoon refreshments, with lunch tickets available as an add-on to the registration fee. If you purchase a lunch ticket, you will enjoy a catered lunch on site with an opportunity to socialize with other pre-conference attendees.

Students, postdocs, and recent graduates are eligible for discounted registration rates. Please note that registration for this pre-conference is limited and available on a first-come-first-serve basis, so register early to guarantee yourself a spot and also to take advantage of the earlybird discount (available until Monday, January 12, 2015)!

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 who doesn’t normally attend SPSP, this pre-conference is a great excuse to come check it out or, at the very least, to visit California in the middle of winter! Please note that you do not need to register for the main SPSP conference in order to come to our pre-conference.

Hope to see you in Long Beach for a full day of sex!

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