The International Nevitt Sanford Award for Outstanding Professional Contributions to Political Psychology was awarded to Haris Psaltis, Professor at the Department of Psychology, Faculty of Social Sciences and Education, University of Cyprus. The International Society of Political Psychology (ISPP) award rewards outstanding professional contributions of individuals to Political Psychology.
The award was presented on July 6, 2024 in Santiago, Chile during a special ceremony at the 47th ISPP Annual Scientific Meeting 2024 and Conference entitled: Deconstructing Democracy: Insecurity, Emotions and Authoritarian Populism (4-6 July 2023).
The Award has been established in honor of Nevitt Sanford, a noted social psychologist for his now classic work on Authoritarian Personality, and is awarded annually to an individual who the committee deems to be 1) engaged in the practical application of the principles of political psychology, or 2) creating knowledge that is accessible and of practical application with a positive impact on the way politics is practiced.
Dr. Haris Psaltis
Harris Psaltis is Professor of Social and Developmental Psychology at the University of Cyprus. He studied Pedagogy at the Cyprus Pedagogical Academy (1993) and the University of Cyprus (1999) and Psychology at Panteion University, Athens (2000). He pursued postgraduate studies at the University of Cambridge (MPhil, 2001 and PhD, 2005, in Social and Developmental Psychology). He also worked as a Postdoctoral Researcher at the Oxford Center for the Study of Intergroup Conflict, Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford.
He is a founding member of the Historical Dialogue and Research Group, the Cyprus Association of Social Psychology, and a founding member and director of the University of Cyprus Field Research Centre (PACEPE). He is also a founding member and co-director of the Laboratory of Genetic Social Psychology at the Department of Psychology, University of Cyprus.
His research interests include Inter-group Relations and the socio-psychological aspects of inter-community relations between Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots in Cyprus; the Teaching of History, collective memory and historical consciousness. She has also studied the role of Social Interaction in learning and cognitive development and cooperative learning. She develops the theoretical interdisciplinary framework of Genetic Social Psychology, which involves the study of the structure of the processes of microgenesis, ontogeny and sociogenesis of representations and knowledge. In recent years he has been developing this interdisciplinary framework in relation to bi-communal relations and the Cyprus issue, and in particular the role of contact between the two communities in Cyprus, after the opening of the barricades in 2003, in reducing prejudice and building trust.
She has also studied the development of prejudice in childhood and representations of the Cyprus issue. He has contributed his expertise as an expert for the Council of Europe on the teaching of history, the OSCE in relation to the teaching of history in Bosnia and Herzegovina and the International Organization for Migration (IOM) in relation to the contact case in interventions to promote the integration of migrants. He has additionally been a member of the Bicommunal Committee on Education since 2017 and served as Field Director for the European Social Survey Round 9 and Field Director and National Coordinator of Cyprus for the European Social Survey Round 10.
In the rationale for his award, the Award Committee recognised his local contribution to projects promoting contact between the two communities in Cyprus through his work in the Historical Dialogue and Research Group, the Bicommunal Technical Committee on Education, the Greek-Turkish Forum and the contribution of his research to the formulation of proposals for the resolution of the Cyprus problem. He was further recognized for his international contribution to the literature on the socio-psychological processes of history teaching in post-conflict societies and international organizations.
More information about the award can be found here: https://ispp.org/awards/sanford/
Source: University of Cyprus | Latest news (https://shorturl.at/6oGgm)