International Society of Political Psychology Academy 2026

ISPP Academy
The ISPP Academy is a three-day workshop which is held each year immediately prior to the ISPP annual meeting, and aims to train interested faculty and students in both foundational and cutting-edge research in the area of political psychology. The ISPP Academy’s central objective is to spread interest and promote training in political psychology around the world. Holding the ISPP Academy in conjunction with the ISPP conference provides its fellows with a unique opportunity to engage and network with a truly international mix of participants and instructors.

The inaugural ISPP Academy (formerly ISPP Summer Academy) was launched with great success in 2011, just prior to the annual meeting in Istanbul, Turkey. Since then, the ISPP Academy has brought together a diverse and internationally recognized group of instructors—among them George E. Marcus, Felicia Pratto, Nick Valentino, Leonie Huddy, Stanley Feldman, Johanna Dunaway, David Redlawsk, Yasin Koc, Iris Žeželj, Tereza Capelos, Pedro Magalhães, Kate Reynolds, Paula Castro, Hermann Swart, Rosario Aguilar, Tabassom Fanaian, Chryl Laird, Orla Muldoon, Ana Figueiredo, Rezvan Moghaddam, André Sales, Salvador Sandoval, Monica M. Gerber, Roberto Gonzalez, Kevin Durrheim, Chris Federico, Joanne Miller, Molly Andrews, Jill Bradbury, Laura Taylor, Gijs Schumacher, and Shawn Rosenberg. Every year, ISPP seeks to renew part of the instructors to allow for both continuity and renewal in the Academy’s teaching core.

Topics covered in the Academy have included emotions and affect in politics and democracy, group-based processes and political identities, neuroscientific and cognitive foundations of political behavior, authoritarianism and right-wing populism, political conflict, and democratic backsliding, the psychological foundations of democratic erosion, belief systems, political attributions, and misinformation. The Academy also offers strong methodological training, including narrative and qualitative approaches, survey measurement and design, computational text analysis and multi-method research strategies. Recent editions have seriously considered the need to expand the scope toward more applied, comparative, and Global South perspectives. Topics such as postcolonialism, political psychology in Latin America, climate and environmental politics, and developmental peacebuilding have also been covered. Finally, the Academy offers professional and academic development training, including publishing, research collaboration and transferring research into policy.

We are committed to diversity and inclusion. The Academy welcomes and encourages the participation of fellows and instructors of all genders, nationalities, racial and ethnic backgrounds, disciplines, and career stages, including persons from underrepresented or historically marginalized groups. We value and actively foster a plurality of theoretical, methodological, professional, and lived experiences within the Academy community. We are aware that putting diversity and inclusion principles into practice is a great challenge. However, we are actively working toward improving our practices and moving in this direction.

Previous Academies have welcomed fellows from across the world: Japan, Belgium, Qatar, South Africa, Chile, United Kingdom, Italy, Oman, Turkey, Austria, China, Germany, Slovakia, Greece, the Netherlands, Brazil, Poland, New Zealand, United States, France, Colombia, Canada, Australia, among many others. Different disciplines are also welcomed: psychology, sociology, political science, communications, international relations, public policy and economics. Fellows include master’s and doctoral students, postdoctoral researchers and established faculty. Each year, the Academy also welcomes professionals and researchers who work in public or non-governmental organizations, bringing valuable hands-on experience to dialogue with academic perspectives.

2026 ISPP Academy
The 2026 ISPP Academy will be held in the University of Newcastle, United Kingdom 13 July-15 July 2026, immediately before the 2026 Annual Meeting.
The 2026 ISPP Academy will feature lectures and hands-on sessions with prominent political psychologists from around the world. Social hours, networking sessions and workshops will provide a platform for Academy fellows to collaborate with one another and with instructors, as well as present research ideas to receive constructive feedback. Topics to be confirmed include democracy and right-wing authoritarianism, political narratives, polarization and extremism, longitudinal methods in political psychology, transferring research into policy, academic publishing and postcolonialism.

Call for Applications
Applications are now open until March 6, 2026, 24:00 (UTC). Download call for applications here. Applications submitted after this deadline will not be considered. Complete the application form in this link. You will be requested to submit a short statement and to upload a short CV (maximum three pages).

Funding
ISPP offers a limited number of travel grants for Early Career Scholars to attend the Annual Meeting. Details and the application (once available) can be found here. Please note that Academy delegates are not eligible for any partial refund of their registration fee for volunteering during the main conference, as the main conference is included with the Academy registration.