Faculty members and alumni from York University’s Faculty of Health were recognized with awards from the American Psychological Association (APA).
The awards reinforce that the Historical, Theoretical, and Critical Studies of Psychology graduate area in the Psychology Department is a unique and internationally recognized program, noted for its intellectual and organizational leadership in the field.
Award winners
The Society for the History of Psychology of the APA announced that area faculty member, Alexandra Rutherford, has won its Career Achievement Award.
“Dr. Rutherford has and continues to make foundational and lasting contributions to the depth and breadth of both the field and profession of History of Psychology,” reads the announcement. “Her range is wide, from the complexities of Skinner’s psychology of behavioural control to the in-depth development of histories of feminist activism, women’s history, and critical gender studies. These contributions were completed while investing expertise and effort in establishing multiple public history pathways to guide, inform, and inspire the next generation of both scholar and novice to the work of the discipline. The committee also recognizes Alexandra Rutherford’s extensive ongoing leadership in preserving and providing public access to the historical record of women in the history of psychology in the United States, Canada, United Kingdom and beyond while contributing significantly to the establishment of Critical History of Psychology studies and the History of Women and Gender in Psychology as specialty areas.”
Rutherford will also deliver the Wallace A. Russell Memorial Lecture at this year’s convention, Aug. 4 to 6 in Minneapolis, entitled “The Science and Politics of Women’s Mental Health: From Pre-menstrual syndrome to Post-abortion syndrome.”
Alumna Elissa Rodkey, a graduate of the program and now a faculty member at Crandall University in New Brunswick will be giving the Mary Whiton Calkins lecture at the same meeting. Her talk is entitled “The Gavel Was a Brass Penis: On the Evil of All-Male Psychology Societies With Some Lessons for Open Science.
In addition, the APA also announced that a recent graduate of the program, Zhipeng Gao, has won the Society for the History of Psychology’s Early Career Award.
“In a very brief time, Dr. Gao has contributed extensively to scholarship to the international history of psychology with particular emphasis on China and the cultural and political contexts of mental health issues emerging within modern psychology in China,” reads the announcement. “Dr. Gao has innovatively demonstrated the application of history of psychology to inform qualitative research on contemporary topics through theoretical and east-west cultural frameworks as well as migration studies. His technical fluency along with sensitivity to the dialogue of major historical events across borders have established him as an up-and-coming next generation leader among the emerging historians of psychology.”
Gao, a faculty member at American University in Paris, also recently won an APA Early Career Award for Excellence in Qualitative Research.
The Society for General Psychology of the APA also announced that area faculty member Christopher Green, will be the co-presenter of the prestigious Arthur Staats Lecture for Unifying Psychology at next year’s convention.