European Conference on Personality (ECP) 2016 Announcement
Florin Sava
Dear colleagues,
We are very pleased to invite you to the 18th biennial European Conference on Personality organized by the European Association of Personality Psychology (EAPP) in cooperation with West University of Timisoara, Romania. The event will be held in Timisoara between 19th and 23rd of July 2016.
This is the most exciting event organized by EAPP every two years. The previous one, hosted in Lausanne (Switzerland), attracted more than 500 participants from 46 countries located on five continents, of which 12% were US citizens. For the next year, we designed a conference program that we hope will provide at least a similar degree of success. Our confidence relies on the high quality of the keynote speakers invited to the ECP18, on the broad range of scientific events that are scheduled during the event, and last but not least, on the opportunities of networking & fun during your stay in Romania.
The EAPP Conferences traditionally bring together some of the most influential researchers in the field of personality psychology and related areas, along with participants, both scholars and graduate students, from all over Europe, USA, and other parts of the world. Seven keynote speakers from both parts of the Atlantic have confirmed their participation at ECP18. We are honored to have them as guests in Timisoara as they are renowned contributors to the field. Here is a list of them in alphabetical order: Mitjia D. Back from University of Munster, Germany; M. Lynne Cooper from University of Missouri - Columbia, USA; Sarah E. Hampson from Oregon Research Institute - Oregon, USA; Dan P. McAdams from Northwestern University - Illinois, USA; Frank M. Spinath from University of Saarland, Germany; Simine Vazire from University of California at Davis - California, USA; Reinout W. Wiers from University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
The conference will include a wide range of scientific events such as invited and open-call symposia, paper and poster sessions, as well as two additional state of the art presentations where the floor will be given to the winners of the EAPP early-career award and the EAPP lifetime career award, respectively. We hope the diversity of events will ensure enough opportunities for professional development and networking. The participation of early career scholars and postgraduate researchers is furthermore encouraged at the ECP18. The European Association of Personality Psychology (EAPP) will offer a limited number of scholarships to support these categories to attend the conference.
Let me say a few words about the social experience, focusing on the venue of the conference. Timisoara was successively the capital of the Hungarian Kingdom in the XIVth century, an Ottoman fortress for more than 150 years, a pilot city for innovation in the Imperial Court of Vienna. Nowadays it is the third largest Romanian city in terms of population and the second economic force after Bucharest. The city is located within an hour drive from the mythical land of Transylvania and its medieval castles, and two-hour drive from another two European capitals: Budapest and Belgrade. Maybe, for some of you, Timisoara is better recalled as the city where the Romanian Revolution against the communist regime started. Twenty-six years ago, Romanians lived in a country where the television program lasted only two hours every day. There was no freedom and no psychology. This field was banned from Academia by Ceausescu in 1981, being considered a threat and a bourgeois science. Today, psychology is in the top five most attractive academic programs, and many Psychology departments have benefited from having their employees trained abroad, in accordance with international standards of good practice.
So, there are multiple reasons to participate at the ECP18. You will have the opportunity to listen to renowned scholars in the field. The conference will provide you a broad range of opportunities for professional development and networking. You will also have the chance to visit Transylvania, as well as other parts of Romania or of the neighboring countries. I am happy to assist you in designing your plans for this trip if you would like.
For more details regarding the conference, please review the descriptions on the website (http://ecp18.psihologietm.ro). Several sections of the website are already active including the registration & submission button, but a fully functional website will be available on November 10, 2015.
I hope to meet you in Timisoara in July 2016 at the next EAPP conference!
Best regards,
Florin A. Sava
Chair of the 18th European Conference on Personality