Tag Archives: Latin America

Call for papers for a Special Thematic Section of the Revista de Psicología

Call for papers for a Special Thematic Section of the Revista de Psicología

Research in History of Psychology: Celebration of the Seventieth Anniversary of the Teaching of Psychology at the University of Chile (1947-2017)

Psychology in Latin America in general, and in Chile in particular, goes through a historically significant moment, several years since the installation of the first programs of undergraduate training in Psychology in the region have passed, since the beginnings at the middle of the 20th century. Precisely, the anniversary of the creation of the first undergraduate program to train psychologists in Chile, in 1947 at the Universidad de Chile, led to the organization of a special section on Research in History of Psychology that can reflect the meaningful historical path of Psychology as a science and profession, in Latin America and the world.

In the last decades, the field of history of psychology became an area of growing professionalization worldwide, with a large number of active researchers, several research lines, celebration of special events, the creation of specific societies, the organization of historic archives and museums, edition and publication of thematic books, among others. The editors of Revista de Psicología (ISSN 0719-0581, http://revistapsicologia.uchile.cl/) believes that it is important to give visibility to the projects in History of Psychology, so necessary to critically evaluate the past of the discipline and analyze the constitutive elements of the professional identity of psychologists. That said, we invites researchers and professionals interested in historical issues to submit their contributions to the special section.

This is a call for papers reporting historiographical studies from the “Psi Disciplines” (Psychology, Psychiatry, Psychoanalysis, and others) and “Behavioral Sciences” (Neuropsychology, Psychobiology, Neurosciences, and others). We hope to receive contributions that highlight the management of primary sources and that include a proper methodological treatment to various historical subjects. Papers received will be subjected to all regular evaluation mechanisms of the journal, which will involve specialized reviewers.

Guest Editors

Vanetza E. Quezada (Universidad de Chile, Chile)
Miguel Gallegos (Universidad Nacional de Rosario, Argentina)
Rodrigo Lopes Miranda (Universidade Católica Dom Bosco, Brasil)

Deadline:  September 1st, 2017. Submissions should be send to: revista.psicologia@facso.cl

History of the Human Sciences in Isis

The most recent issue of Isis, the journal of the History of Science Society, includes two articles on the history of the human sciences. Leila Zenderland explores the work of Max Weinreich (above) on culture and personality at the Yiddish Scientific Institute, while in the issue’s Focus section, Global Currents in National Histories of Science: The “Global Turn” and the History of Science in Latin America, Julia Rodriguez looks at the historiography of the human sciences in Latin America. Full titles, authors, and abstracts – along with human science related book reviews – follow below.

“Social Science as a “Weapon of the Weak”: Max Weinreich, the Yiddish Scientific Institute, and the Study of Culture, Personality, and Prejudice,” by Leila Zenderland. The abstract reads,

This essay examines Max Weinreich’s efforts to turn “culture and personality studies” into social and psychological weapons that could be used to combat the effects of prejudice. It focuses on language choice, audience, and purpose in the production of such knowledge by and for a Yiddish-speaking Eastern European population. During the 1930s, Weinreich led the Yiddish Scientific Institute, a research organization headquartered in Poland but affiliated with neither a state nor a university. He was profoundly influenced by a year spent at Yale and a trip through the American South visiting segregated African-American universities. In his 1935 study Der veg tsu undzer yugnt [The Way to Our Youth], Weinreich blended European, Soviet, American, and African-American research traditions to examine the effects of prejudice on child and adolescent development; he also considered the ways members of “despised minorities” could use such science. In 1940 he fled to New York and in 1946 published Hitler’s Professors, the first book analyzing the uses of the human sciences to advance Nazi state-sponsored antisemitism. In examining Weinreich’s Yiddish and English writings, this essay explores the broader relationship of social science not only to state power but also to statelessness and powerlessness.

“Beyond Prejudice and Pride: The Human Sciences in Nineteenth- and Twentieth-Century Latin America,” by Julia Rodriguez. The abstract reads,

Grappling with problematics of status and hierarchy, recent literature on the history of the human sciences in Latin America has gone through three overlapping phases. First, the scholarship has reflected a dialogue between Latin American scientists and their European colleagues, characterized by the “center/periphery” model of scientific diffusion. Next, scholars drew on postcolonial theory to undermine the power of the “center” and to recover the role of local agents, including both elites and subalterns. In the wake of numerous studies embracing both models, the way has been cleared to look at multiple dimensions simultaneously. Histories of the human sciences in the complex multicultural societies of Latin America provide an unusually direct path to integration. Moreover, this dynamic and multilayered approach has the potential to address ambivalences about authority and power that have characterized previous analyses of the production and application of knowledge about the human condition.

Book Reviews
Peter Lamont. Extraordinary Beliefs: A Historical Approach to a Psychological Problem. Review by: Michael Pettit.

Nicolas Langlitz. Neuropsychedelia: The Revival of Hallucinogen Research since the Decade of the Brain. Review by: Chris Elcock

Melissa M. Littlefield; Jenell M. Johnson, eds. The Neuroscientific Turn: Transdisciplinarity in the Age of the Brain. Review by: Stephen Jacyna

Paul Wouters, Anne Beaulieu, Andrea Scharnhorst, & Sally Wyatt. (Eds.). Virtual Knowledge: Experimenting in the Humanities and the Social Sciences. Review by: Joshua W. Clegg.