APA Division 35 Townhall Blog

Congratulations to Dr. Carrie Castañeda-Sound, who has been elected as SPW’s next President-Elect! Below is a statement from Dr. Castañeda-Sound. --------- I want to thank you for electing me to serve Division 35 as president-elect. I am both honored and humbled to lead a division that has been my touchstone within APA since 2007. For those of you who I have not met, I wanted to share a little about my involvement with SPW. I was the secretary and then the president of Section 3 (Concerns of Latinas) beginning in 2007 until 2012. The last year and a half I have served as SPW’s secretary and I have enjoyed working closely with our elected EC. In addition to my many mentors within SPW,  my mother and grandmothers taught me valuable lessons about feminist leadership and advocacy. In fact, I remember my great-Aunt telling me that I didn’t have time to be shy and to not fear speaking up. She said, “Mija, there’s too much work to be done.”  As we can see from the recent uprising...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tFi6WSvGptw Dear Friends, Community, and Colleagues,  We come to you as the leadership of Division 35, the Society for the Psychology of Women, in the form of its Presidential Trio, to firmly and unequivocally denounce the violence that snuffed out the lives of Breonna Taylor, George Floyd, and Ahmaud Arbery, their lives the most recent example of imperialist white supremacist capitalist patriarchy in action. This comprehensive form of violence and erasure threatens Black and Indigenous lives as fundamental to the existence of this country. It scapegoats the lives of Latinx/Chicanx and Asian descendant folx bringing to bear the contradictions inherent to its lie of being superior. We do not believe in this lie.  As three women, whose communities are directly impacted by the pain of this targeted violence, historically and contemporarily, we denounce the characterization of the uprisings across this nation and the globe, as anything less than the...

With a heavy heart, we relay the passing of Dr. Jean Lau Chin from COVID-19 complications. Jean, a former Div. 35 President and leader throughout APA, lost her valiant fight on May 13, 2020, and we share in the immense loss of an extraordinary leader, mentor, and friend to many of us.  We created a memorial page for Jean and, in a way, from Jean. We include her candidacy domain because it seemed fitting to weave our messages with  her  website speaking  her  legacy.  Please join us in sending thoughts for Jean  here :   https://www.jeanlauchinforapapresident.com/in-memory

What do you know about the books in the APA Psychology of Women Book Series and the authors and editors that made them a reality? As the incoming editors of the series, Irene Frieze ( frieze@pitt.edu ) and I are impressed with the books that have been published and the important topics featured. We hope to continue this tradition and promote feminist scholarship. Take the quiz below to test your knowledge on the series and meet some great books, authors, and editors in the process.

Following Society procedures, we submitted a request for statements from  each of the five candidates for President-elect of APA, requesting them if they could send Division 35, a 500-word statement that summarizes their track record on women’s issues and their vision of how they would incorporate the mission and values of Division 35 in the office if elected. The letter also stated that the Executive Committee will review the statements and make judgments about endorsement based on a number of criteria, e.g., track record on women’s issues which may be demonstrated in a variety of ways (service to APA, Division 35, contributions to scholarships, science, practice, etc.); track record of inclusiveness and fostering the empowerment of women . This may be demonstrated by involvement in issues related to ethnic minorities, ability status, sexual orientation, and other dimensions of social identity and difference that can potentially divide women from each other and from men.  ...

The Division 35 Executive Committee voted to sign the   Joint Public Statement by Psychology Groups on U.S. Immigration Policies and Practices   authored by our colleagues in Division 45 (Helen Neville, president; J. Manuel Casas, Nayeli Y. Chavez-Dueñas, Nicholas Culp, Roberto Abreu, members, Society for the Psychological Study of Culture, Ethnicity and Race (APA Division 45)). The statement and supporting references are here:  http://helenneville1.wixsite.com/website-1

Following Society procedures, the chair of the governance committee, Dr. Asuncion Austria, submitted a request for statements from the five candidates for APA president-elect. (see below for a detailed report.) The five candidates and links to their general statements are at the APA web site:  http://www.apa.org/about/governance/elections/index.aspx Dr. Austria received responses from four of the five candidates: Sandra L. Shullman, PhD Jean Lau Chin, EdD Steven D. Hollon, PhD Susan K. Whitbourne, PhD Dr. Signorella then received a statement from the fifth candidate: Armand Cerbone, PhD ======================================================= Dr. Austria's governance report: As provided for in the Handbook of Society for the Psychology of Women, the Governance Committee sent a letter to each of the five candidates for President-elect of APA, requesting them if they could send Division 35, a 500-statement that summarizes their tract record on women’s issues and th...