NEEPS HISTORY

The NorthEastern Evolutionary Psychology Society (NEEPS) started simply as an idea in 2006. Several young scholars and students with interests in the evolutionary behavioral sciences expressed some common issues. Largely, several of us found that the entire foundation of our field was sorely misunderstood by academics from other areas of psychology. NEEPS was designed largely to create an intimate, regional community of scholars who shared both passion and understanding for this exciting field. From the outset, our first-ever conference (held in New Paltz, NY in April of 2007) was a notable success, including scholars from well-beyond the northeastern part of the United States—including several Canadian provinces, California, the UK, and beyond. Immediately, we realized that there was something to our idea. At our first business meeting, held during the 2007 conference, we agreed to have the Journal of Social, Evolutionary, and Cultural Psychology, which had just been launched by founding NEEPSters Rosemarie Sokol-Chang and Sarah Strout, serve as the formal journal of the society. That journal was renamed Evolutionary Behavioral Sciences and is now published by the American Psychological Association. NEEPS also has a formal affiliation with EvoS Journal, which publishes the proceedings of the conference each year. 

 

From the outset, NEEPS has had a mission that focuses largely on including and empowering students at all levels of research. Across the years, the society has led to a broad number of collaborative projects including scholarly presentations, books, book chapters, encyclopedia entries, journal articles, special issues of academic journals, and more. Further, the Feminist Evolutionary Perspectives Society and the Applied Evolutionary Psychology Society both have their roots in discussions that came about from NEEPS. 

 

As we see it, NEEPS includes a balance of high academic standards coupled with a truly warm and inviting communal environment that is open to all who are interested in advancing work in the evolutionary behavioral sciences. 

 

-Glenn Geher, Founding President of the NorthEastern Evolutionary Psychology Society

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