Article archive / June 1, 2013
Originally published: . Volume 4, No. 10. Source pages: 1, 10.
For the third time, Tulane’s Dr. Janet Ruscher has pulled off a major success as the Committee Chair of the Association for Psychological Science Convention, that just wrapped up last month in Washington, D.C.
“The conference was a terrific success,” she told the Times, “––great energy, record attendance, excellent balance across the programs.”
She might be getting good at this. Dr. Ruscher also chaired the convention for the growing organization in 2003 and 2004.
“When I first chaired the convention committee in 2002 for the 2003 convention, I had limited administrative experience,” she said. “Since then I’ve served nine years as Department Chair and now am wrapping up my first year as an Associate Dean. “What I know now that I didn’t know then is the wonderful fortune of good support staff,” she noted. “APS has an amazing team. Good staff are almost invisible, so one risks taking them for granted. Don’t take them for granted.”
This year’s APS convention drew a host of researchers from around Louisiana. Under- graduates, graduate students, and professors in psychology from Centenary, LaTech, Loyola, Tulane, U. of Louisiana–Lafayette, U. of New Orleans, and Xavier University demonstrated their research skill and contributions for the premier scientific organization for those in psychology.
The APS convention revolved around the theme of “Regulating the World, Regulating the Mind,” “Building a Better Psychological Science: Good Date Practices and Replicability,” and the “Biological Bases of Social Behavior.” The conference was awash with big names in psychology, including Michael Gazzaniga, Elaine Walker, Diane Halpern, Scott Lilienfeld, and Roy Baumeister, representing just a few of the keynote speakers.
Each theme addressed key topics in psychological science and included a variety of distinguished speakers, roundtable discussions, and related poster presentation sessions.
The Times asked Ruscher what had been some of the most rewarding aspects of being the conference chair this year. “Because the cross-cutting symposia, presidential symposium, workshops, and other programming integrate across sub- disciplines,” she explained, “the convention committee adopts a view from 20,000 feet.”
“We have the opportunity to look at the commonalities across psychological science, and enjoy the interdisciplinary experience,” she said. “For example, in discussions with the committee, we realized that all of us talk about ‘regulation’ and that the similarities would draw a wide audience while the differences would stretch the audience’s perspectives in new directions. Opportunities to do this––effectively––are rare.”
While noting that the high points for her were probably the cross-cutting symposia, she also pointed out that, “Given the popularity of the Bobo doll last year, I wagered that people would enjoy the Milgram machine.”
Attendees had the chance to see Milgram’s Simulated Shock Generator that was on loan from the Center for the History of Psychology of University of Akron.
What were the biggest challenges? “The committee holds teleconferences at least one a month,” she noted, “which can be challenging with an international committee.”
“At one point,” she explained, “our teleconferencers were dispersed from Turkey to Texas–and we were lucky that one member had returned to North America from Australia.”
“Next year’s conference in San Francisco, chaired by Wendy Mendes, promises to be outstanding,” Dr. Ruscher said.
Dr. Janet Ruscher is the Associate Dean for Graduate Programs, School of Science and Engineering, at Tulane University. Prior to her latest position she served at the Chair of the Tulane Psychology Department and also is Professor in the department.
Louisiana Tech counseling psychology graduates student Terri Duck (L) and Laura Harris look over one of their poster presentations. Ms. Harris presented at this yearʼs Association for Psychological Science recently in DC. Ms. Duck is president of the Counseling Psychology Studentsʼ Organization at LaTech. She was chair of the recent North Louisiana Behavioral & Social Sciences Conference held at LaTech.
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