The tentative program for the 2008 meeting of Cheiron: The International Society for the History of Behavioral and Social Sciences [broken link now fixed] was recently released. The conference will take place this year June 26-29 at Ryerson University in Toronto, hosted by the former archivist and librarian of the American Psychological Association, Wade Pickren.

Highlights of this year’s conference begin with a plenary “conversation” with emeritus York University professor Raymond Fancher entitled “Pioneering Personology in the History of Psychology.” Fancher is best known for his books on Freudian psychology and on the history of intelligence testing. He is currently working on a biography of Francis Galton and on the 4th edition of his popular textbook Pioneers of Psychology. The session, which will start Friday at 11:30, will also include participation by Nicole Barenbaum, best known for her historical work on Harvard personality theorist Gordon Allport.

Gerald Grob of Rutgers University will deliver the keynote address at 1:30 Friday, entitled “Morbidity and mortality in 20th century America: The enigma of explanation.” Grob has written several significant books on the history of mental asylums and hospitals in America.

The Friday program ends with a visit to the Royal Ontario Museum which is currently showing an exhibit on the life and work of Charles Darwin which has been mounted in collaboration with the American Museum of Natural History in New York City, the Fields Museum in Chicago, and the Natural History Museum in London.

On Saturday at 1:15, York University emeritus professor Kurt Danziger will deliver an invited address entitled “Long past, short history: The case of memory.” Danziger’s books Constructing the Subject and Naming the Mind are widely regarded as having changed the course of research into psychology’s history. He is currently working on a book about the history of memory as a “discursive object.”

Sunday morning at 9:00 will see the presentation of the Cheiron Book Award to Sarah Igo of U. Pennsylvania for The Averaged American: Surveys, Citizens, and the Making of a Mass Public (Harvard U., 2007).

In addition there will by over 60 papers and posters presented on a wide range of topics. The complete preliminary program can be downloaded here.

The program chair for the Cheiron conference is Ingrid Farreras of Hood College in Maryland.