Just got back from the Society for Personality and Social Psychology conference in Austin, Texas. I would say I saw roughly 25 1980s-era Michigan people there, including those who were UM undergraduates, graduate students, post docs, and faculty members at the time. I also saw some people who came to Michigan a little after the 80s. Here are some of the people I saw (with apologies to anyone I've left out).
Hazel Markus, who spent probably over 20 years at Michigan as a graduate student and faculty member before moving to Stanford in the early 1990s, gave the SPSP Presidential Address, which was entitled "Social and Personality Psychology: Made in the USA." Continuing a long line of cross-cultural studies, Hazel focused specifically on the belief system in this country that sees the self (and only the self) as the source of individual actions, accomplishments, and choices, and on the historical and cultural supports for such a belief system. She showed videotapes of television coverage of two recent Olympic gold medalists, a US swimmer and a Japanese runner. The former, when interviewed, talked about "digging deep" within herself to summon the strength to win. The latter, in contrast, made it a point during her victory lap to acknowledge her coach, manager, and shoe designer, apparently crediting the contextual contributions to her (or her "team's") success. Both anecdotes and research studies were presented. Hazel was introduced by 80s graduate student and current Michigan faculty member Shinobu Kitayama.
Current UM Psychology Department Chair Rich Gonzalez was there. As I told Rich, I remember that when I was a first-year grad student at Michigan during the 1984-85 academic year, he came to visit as he was looking at grad schools (he ultimately opted for Stanford). What more compelling illustration is there of how time has flown by than seeing someone whom you met as a prospective graduate student now serving as department chair?
Two 80s grad students who are now based in France, Jill Klein and Paula Niedenthal, each attended the conference. Other former social psych grad students attending included Darrin Lehman (whom I had not seen in many years), Carolin Showers, Susan Cross (who suggested that this website could be used to help organize reunions of former Michigan people at future SPSP conferences), Chris Crandall, and Monica Biernat.
Daphna Oyserman, a joint social psychology-social work grad student at Michigan and now back at UM was also in attendance at SPSP. Former personality psych grad students Will Fleeson, Rob Sellers, Tim Ketelaar, and Jean Twenge were also there. Tim and Jean were actually 90s-era Wolverines.
Eighties-era UM post-docs were also well represented in Austin, including Mark Baldwin (who in between academic stints co-starred in the children's television program Camp Cariboo, which I discovered many years later on cable), Pete Ditto, Geraldine Downey, and Niall Bolger. As is frequently the case, Niall was a hub of activity; at the poster sessions and social hours, people were swarming Niall as if he were the fifth Beatle!
Jennifer Lerner, who was an undergraduate student in a section of social psychology that I TA'd (as part of a large amphitheatre-type lecture class) is now on the faculty at Carnegie-Mellon. Jennifer chaired a symposium at SPSP entitled "The Feel of a Decision."
A couple of other people I saw were Suzanne Thompson, who was a visiting faculty member at Michigan in the Winter 1985 semester, and Traci Giuliano, who visited Michigan when looking at grad schools but opted for UCLA (another fine school and my undergraduate alma mater).
(Note: People above whose names do not have an active web link should be linked in the message below.)