Call for Proposals

2026 Society for Humanistic Psychology Annual Conference
 

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The Society for Humanistic Psychology invites proposals for our upcoming annual conference centered on the theme:

 

Generational Equity: Honoring the Past, Shaping the Future

 

This year’s theme invites us to explore the ethical, psychological, and existential questions of
what it means to care for, learn from, and be accountable to both past and future generations.
Generational equity challenges us to confront historical harms, live with responsibility in the

present, and co-create liberatory futures.

 

At the heart of this conversation lies the enduring legacy of Black existentialism—a tradition that
has long illuminated the tensions between oppression and freedom, invisibility and recognition,
memory and transformation. Thinkers such as W.E.B. Du Bois, James Baldwin, Angela Davis, bell hooks, Frantz Fanon, Cornel West, Tommy Curry, and Ralph Ellison have profoundly influenced how humanistic-existential psychology can center on lived experience, radical dignity, cultural humility, and collective healing in response to historical and structural violence.

 

Expressions of reparative justice, such as historical repair, climate justice, and reparations,
represent a critical embodiment of generational equity and healing. As Humanistic-Existential
psychologists, reparations for chattel slavery and systemic racial harm represent deep models of holistic community psychological imperatives rooted in existential repair: they call for truth-
telling, mourning, empowerment, and renewal. Humanistic psychology’s emphasis on meaning-
making, relational depth, and liberation makes it a natural partner in these efforts.

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Join us in embodying our Humanistic-Existential values through community, relationship, and
critical inquiry during this time of upheaval and hardship for many.

We welcome proposals that explore—but are not limited to—the following themes:

• Reparative justice, reparations, and historical redress through a humanistic lens
• Black existentialism and its contemporary relevance to identity, trauma, and liberation
• Intergenerational trauma, healing, and reconciliation
•Empirically Informed Advocacy as psychologists and mental health practitioners
• Youth activism, ecological grief, and climate justice

• Aging, legacy, and dignity in later life
•Gender, sexuality, and sexual orientation
• Indigenous knowledge, ancestral memory, cultural humility, and cultural continuity
• Multigenerational, intersectional dialogue in psychotherapy, education, and community
practice
• Equity in education, employment, and health across the lifespan
• Digital culture, AI, and the shaping of generational identities
• Reimagining institutions for long-term equity and care

We encourage creative, experiential, embodied, and dialogical formats, including papers,
symposia, experiential workshops, roundtables, performances, and community-based work.
Submissions from students, early-career professionals, community members, and historically
marginalized voices are especially encouraged.