Dear Friends,

As you know, we had hoped that the outbreak of the COVID-19 virus would be contained in time for our Montreal 2020 PsyArt Conference to occur. We wrote PsyArters that we would wait until about April 15, 2020 to decide. We have been in touch regularly with João Da Silva Guerreiro and Inês Faro Araujo, organizers of the Montreal conference, as well as with Paavo Maaninen, the organizer of the conference in Jyväskylä, Finland, originally scheduled for 2021. Each of the organizers, along with their local colleagues, has already done a marvelous job. We are so grateful for all their efforts and initiative. The continued spread of the virus now makes a more immediate decision advisable. New York has become the epicenter of the outbreak, and travel to and within North America has become risky and difficult. We have considered the health advisories from the CDC, hotel and business closures, citywide and even state- and nation-wide lockdowns, and other policies that complicate everyone’s plans.

CONFERENCE POSTPONEMENTS

We have decided to postpone (not cancel) the Montreal 2020 conference to around the same time in 2021. In turn, the Jyväskylä conference will be postponed to 2022. The exact dates of each conference will be announced when the schedule can be rearranged.

PROPOSAL ACCEPTANCES WILL CARRY OVER TO 2021

If your proposal to present a paper at this year’s Montreal conference was accepted, that acceptance carries over to the Montreal conference in 2021. If you want to change your paper topic, please submit a new proposal before the deadline next year; we will review it with other submissions. This year’s acceptance remains valid for the 2021 conference.

REGISTRATION REFUNDS

If you have not paid the conference fee for 2020, you do not need to do anything at this time. We will open registration for the Montreal 2021 conference later in 2020. Further details on registration deadlines will follow.

If you did pay the registration fee, you have two options

FINANCIAL ASSISTANCE AND AWARDS

If you received any financial assistance towards travel or any awards from PsyArt related to the Montreal 2020 conference, those will carry forward to the Montreal 2021 conference. Please contact Elizabeth Fox at emfox@mit.edu if you have questions about travel assistance or awards. You may apply for new awards for next year, following the guidelines to be posted for the Montreal 2021 conference.

Please know that we believe this is now the best decision even if the situation improves, as we hope it will do very soon. However, we want to notify you earlier rather than later, so that you can arrange your future attendance at the conferences. Please look after yourselves and your loved ones, observe the recommended social distancing and hand washing (If we can flatten the curve of infections, we can all rise again together and look forward to meeting in Montreal in 2021). Please contact one of us if you have further questions; we will respond as best we can and as promptly as possible.

We send you our best wishes and look forward to meeting in Montreal and Jyväskylä.

Be safe and well.
Marike Steeman, Elizabeth Fox and Samir Dayal

Welcome

We are pleased to announce that the 37th International Conference on Psychology and the Arts will be held at the Department of Psychology of the Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM), 100 rue Sherbrooke Ouest, H2X 3P2, Montreal, Canada, June 24th-June 28th, 2020. The conference is sponsored by the PsyArt Foundation and the Faculty of Human Sciences of the Université du Québec à Montréal. Our local hosts are Dr. João Da Silva Guerreiro, Assistant Professor at the Department of Psychology of UQAM and Researcher and Psychologist at the Institut national de psychiatrie légale Philippe-Pinel, and Inês Faro, Ph.D. student at the Department of Literatures and Languages of the World of the Université de Montréal and Candidate, Canadian Institute of Psychoanalysis – Quebec English.

Papers should deal with any application of psychology—including psychoanalysis, object relations, feminist, Jungian, or Lacanian approaches, cognitive psychology, or neuroscience–to the study of literature, film and visual media, painting, sculpture, music, performance, or the other arts. Our conference is small (maximum 75 papers), convivial, and draws scholars from around the world. We also welcome artists and conferees who do not present papers.

The registration fee of $375 includes sessions, coffee breaks, the opening reception (evening of June 24), two tours (June 25 afternoon city tour and June 28 afternoon bus tour), and Sunday evening June 28 closing banquet in Montreal. For an additional charge, there is also an optional one-day post-conference tour to Quebec City and Montmorency Falls on Monday June 29 (details TBA).

The registration fee is reduced to $190 for graduate students; for conferees from Russia, Central or Eastern Europe; for accompanying children under 18; and for partners, friends, or family who attend June 28 only (the bus tour and banquet).

Montreal

Montreal is the largest city in Canada's Québec province. It’s set on an island in the Saint Lawrence River and is built around Mont Royal, from which the city received its name. Mont Royal Park, located on the mountain, was designed by Frederick Law Olmsted, who also designed New York City's Central Park. Montreal is the first North American city to have been designated a UNESCO City of Design by the Global Alliance for Cultural Diversity in 2006. Old Montreal--with the Gothic Revival Notre-Dame Basilica at its center--is the most historic part of the city, with buildings designed during the French and British colonial periods.

Montreal is the second largest French-speaking city in the world, after Paris. Most Montrealers--especially in downtown–are bilingual, though.

Montreal has the highest number of restaurants per capita in Canada and the second in North America after New York. Montreal’s restaurant scene is very cosmopolitan, with menus from around the world, often with an added French touch.

Preliminary Conference Outline

Wednesday, June 24th
Welcome reception
Thursday, June 25th
Morning: Official opening and keynote address by Marie-Ange Pongis-Khandjian, psychologist and psychoanalyst, member of the Société psychanalytique de Québec (SPQ) and of the IPA.
Start of parallel sessions.
Afternoon: Walking Tour of Old Montreal.
Friday, June 26th
Keynote address by Cécile Rousseau, MD, Professor at the Division of Social and Cultural Psychiatry, McGill University, and Élise Bourgeois-Guérin, Université TELUQ. Parallel sessions continued. Film showing. Directors' Meeting in the late afternoon (PsyArt Directors only).
Saturday, June 27th
Parallel sessions continued.
Sunday, June 28th
Final sessions, followed by Members' Meeting (all conferees invited) and group photos. Bus trip in the afternoon (details TBA), followed by closing banquet.
Monday, June 29th
Morning departure, or optional one-day trip to Quebec City and Montmorency Falls (details TBA).

The Hotels

Please make sure to book your hotel well beforehand, as Montreal will be particularly busy at the time of the conference (as it coincides with both the National Hockey League Draft, which will take place on June 26th, and the Jazz Fest, which will take place from June 25th to July 4th (more information at https://www.montrealjazzfest.com/en/About/LeFestival).

We have discount pricing at two hotels, with 20 rooms at Le Nouvel Hotel & Spa and 25 at Hotel Les Suites Labelle. Both hotels are within walking distance (25-35 min) of the conference venue, and, alternatively, have easy access to metro stations nearby with connections to the conference site.

Graduate students and budget-conscious participants may also stay at the University Dorm Résidences de l’Ouest.

Le Nouvel Hotel & Spa
1740 Rene-Levesque West, Montreal, QC H3H 1R3
Tel: 1 514 931 0961
http://www.lenouvelhotel.com

Special rate for PsyArt participants: CA$ 199 (about 138 EUR) for a room with double or single occupancy (breakfast and taxes not included). The hotel must receive reservations by May 1st, 2020.

Reservations can either be made through the following reservation link or, for those who would like to contact the hotel directly for a booking, by mentioning the group code 849875.

Hotel Les Suites Labelle
1205 Labelle, Montreal, H2L 4C1
Tel: 1 514 840 1151
Toll free: 1 866 602 1151
http://www.hotellabelle.com/en/

Special rate for PsyArt participants: CA$ 149 (about 104 EUR) for a double room with double occupancy (taxes not included), and CA$ 129 (about 90 EUR) for a single room with single occupancy. All rooms are equipped with a kitchenette, and American breakfast is included in the rate. The hotel must receive reservations by May 15th, 2020.

Reservations can be made through the following link using PSYART2020 as the group code.

University Dorm (Résidences Universitaires de l’Ouest)
2100 rue St-Urbain, Montreal, H2X 4E1
Tel: 1 514 987 7747
http://www.residences-uqam.qc.ca/hotel/

Special rate for Psyart participants: CA$ 101.16$ (about 70 EUR) for an individual studio (breakfast and taxes not included), and CA$ 96.39 (about 67 EUR) per room for an M2- apartment with two rooms (breakfast and taxes not included). For more information on the rooms, please visit the above website. Reservations can be made by sending an email to delouest-residences@uqam.ca with full name, phone number, room preference and group name (PSYART2020). The front desk employees will then confirm and accept payment of the deposit by phone (credit card). Please note that the Résidences Universitaires UQAM do NOT take reservations for summer 2020 before April.

Papers

Papers should be short, 20 minutes at most. Please observe the time limit. Normal speaking rate is 140 words per minute, and, for clarity, a scholarly presentation should be somewhat slower. Our standard 20-minute limit allows you to speak about 2400 words or eight to ten pages maximum. An additional ten minutes are allotted for discussion for each paper, usually at the end of the session. The moderator is responsible for keeping speakers to 20 minutes. The moderator speaks last, and it is therefore in his or her interest to maintain the schedule.

If you submit your paper for publication after the conference, at that time it can be as long or short as you like.

English is the primary conference language, although we sometimes have sessions in French, German, or other languages if there is sufficient interest. We recommend that speakers in English who are not native speakers of English accompany their talks with PowerPoint.

Please prepare an abstract, 150 words maximum, and add it to the registration form below.

Student Fellowships

The Psyart Foundation offers up to three Norman and Jane Holland Travel Fellowships of $500 each for outstanding graduate student papers. These can be awarded only once per person, but you can apply every year until you win. If you are a graduate student (prior to completing the Ph.D.), once your abstract has been accepted to the conference, if you wish, please send the complete text of your paper by March 1st, 2020 to be considered for a fellowship. No recommendations are necessary. Send papers to Professor Samir Dayal: sdayal@bentley.edu

In memoriam of our longtime Vice President Andrew Gordon, the Psyart Foundation also offers up to two Andrew Gordon Fellowships of $500 each for Ph.D. students who participate at the conference for the first time. Allocation is on a first-come, first-served basis. A supporting letter from the supervisor is necessary. Send it to Dr. Elizabeth Fox: emfox@mit.edu

Registration Form 2020

The deadline for sending us your title and abstract is May 1st, 2020 or when we have 75 accepted abstracts, registration forms, and registration fees, whichever comes sooner. Once you receive notice that your abstract is accepted, you can pay your fees to be assured a slot on the program.

For each person attending the conference, please fill out a separate online form and pay the registration fee. Please indicate clearly "No Paper" if that is the case. Otherwise indicate the title and abstract below.

For a complete registration, we require three items:

  1. A completed registration form (see below) including paper title.
  2. Brief abstract of paper (150 words maximum), if you are giving a paper. These abstracts enable us to decide if your paper is acceptable for the conference and then to place your paper in an appropriate session. We also publish them online and distribute the abstracts at the conference.
  3. A registration fee of $375 U.S., to be paid after acceptance of your abstract, which includes admission to all sessions, two tours, reception, coffee breaks, and banquet. The $375 fee must also be paid by those not presenting a paper and by accompanying family or friends who wish to have a conference badge and to participate in conference events. Graduate students; conferees from Russia, Central or Eastern Europe; children (under 18) of conferees; and partners, friends, or family wishing to attend only on June 28th pay $190. Any payments received after April 15th must include a late fee of $35, and no payments will be accepted after May 15th. The registration fee includes a $25 tax-deductible donation to the PsyArt Foundation. The registration fee is refundable (except the $25 donation) for any reason until June 1st, but not thereafter for any reason. The donation makes you a member of PsyArt, entitled—and encouraged—to attend and to vote at the annual meeting of PsyArt, which will take place at the conference on June 28th. You will find instructions for payment after the registration form below.

Important: Include your e-mail address below. It will not come through to us automatically from this form, and, if we don't have it, our communications with you will be impossible. Make sure it is typed correctly.

If, by April, you are not getting e-mail from us, let us know. Do not assume that some currency arrangement you made the previous year is still effective. Do not leave your registration for some friend to do. Make sure that we have your complete registration (all three items) and your correct e-mail address. Fill out a separate form and pay for each person attending.

If you require a travel visa, please let us know right away, as you will need a special letter of invitation from Université du Québec à Montréal, and the visa application process sometimes takes months.

Registration form
Paper details

Last-minute changes in titles, abstracts, and schedule cause great difficulty for the organizers. We will not accept changes in title or abstract after June 1st nor changes in the schedule after one week from the time the organizers e-mail the schedule.

Payment

Your conference registration fee pays for a reception Wednesday evening June 24th, sessions from Thursday through Sunday morning, coffee breaks, a walking tour on Thursday afternoon June 25th, and a bus tour and a final banquet on Sunday, June 28th. The registration fee is $375 U.S., $25 of which is a tax-deductible donation to the PsyArt Foundation which supports the conference, the journal, and the listserv. It is $190 for graduate students; children (under 18) of conferees; and partners, friends, or family wishing to attend only on June 30th. You must pay the registration fee for yourself and for all accompanying partners, friends, spouses, or family members, if they participate in conference events, whether or not they attend sessions. Deadline for receipt of registration fees is April 15th, 2020. Any payments received after April 15th must include a late fee of $35, and no payments will be accepted after May 15th, 2020.

The registration fee (except for the $25 donation) is refundable for any reason until June 1st, but not for any reason thereafter. The donation makes you a member of PsyArt, entitled to attend and to vote at the annual meeting to be held on Sunday, June 28th, in Montreal. Please do attend and vote.

U.S. registrants can send a check to our treasurer, made out to "PsyArt Foundation":

Dr. Elizabeth Fox
Treasurer, PsyArt Foundation
2 Sparks Place
Cambridge, MA 02138
U.S.A.
emfox@mit.edu

Alternatively, both U.S. and non-U.S. registrants from many countries can pay through our PsyArt account at PayPal.com. That way you can charge your registration to your credit card over the Internet with no delay and save the bother of writing and mailing a check. If you do pay this way, however, it adds 4% to your payment, which is the PayPal fee, so that the payment below will be 390 or 197.60 U.S. dollars.

For Western European and other non-U.S. registrants, our local bank puts a heavy surcharge on foreign checks. We much prefer that you use PayPal. If necessary, you can arrange a check for us through your bank. Non-U.S. registrants who cannot arrange payment through their banks or through PayPal should contact our treasurer Elizabeth Fox: emfox@mit.edu. Sometimes a friend in another country can pay on your behalf.

Registrants may choose to sign up for a PayPal account during the Web "Accept payment" process. An "account" simply means telling PayPal your name, address, and your credit card number.

Signing up for a PayPal account does not commit you to anything—it just enables you to use your credit card to make payments on the Internet to this conference (and anything else that catches your fancy). The Wall Street Journal assures us that this method of payment is more secure than check or money order.

To begin the PayPal payment process, click on the icon:

Warning!

Registration closed!

Regular registration (426.4 USD)
Student, child, or June 30 only registration (234 USD)