Professor Mel Manis (1931-2026)

I just learned of the June passing of Mel Manis at age 95 (obituary). Mel was universally known for his kindness and was a leading researcher on stereotypes and social judgement. I took a graduate seminar from Mel in 1986, which I wrote about here. Mel wrote an article in 2003 about his retirement. When I was in school at U-M, Mel and another social-psych faculty member, Gene Burnstein, each used to let me use their Michigan men's basketball tickets when they couldn't attend. This past season's Michigan squad won the NCAA men's basketball championship and I'm so glad Mel was around to see it. 

Passing of Two Ph.D. Alumni: Judy Shapiro and Sam Sommers

Sadly, we have lost two Michigan social psychology Ph.D. recipients in recent months.

Judy Shapiro was in the same entering cohort as I was in Fall 1984. Her sharp, critical intelligence always stood out to me and I enjoyed interacting with her. Judy was interested in base-rate reasoning when she arrived, but completed her 1991 dissertation on self-esteem and helping. Judy remained in the Ann Arbor area for many years, teaching at various local colleges, before moving to Florida. An obituary is available here.

Sam Sommers came through the Michigan program around 13 years after my cohort, finishing his Ph.D. in 2002. Despite the fact we did not overlap at Michigan, I felt some common bonds. Sam worked with Phoebe Ellsworth, who was also one of my advisors, and Sam and I each wrote sports-related books (here and here). I don't remember if I ever met Sam in person, but we definitely e-mailed a bit. Sam's obituary from Tufts University, where he was a professor, is available here.

Shinobu Kitayama Receives APA Distinguished Scientific Career Award

Shinobu Kitayama, who received his graduate training at Michigan from 1982-1987 and then served on the faculties of the University of Oregon (1988-1993) and Kyoto University (1993-2003) before returning to UM in 2003, recently was announced as a recipient of the American Psychological Association's Distinguished Scientific Career (DSC) Award. APA honors only three DSC recipients each year (occasionally more, if a long-collaborating duo is among the recipients). Considering the many subfields of psychology and the tens (hundreds?) of thousands of researchers out there, the DSC is truly a rare recognition. Interestingly, one of this year's other recipients is Susan Gelman, a Michigan faculty member in developmental psychology since 1984. The DSC definitely has a maize and blue tint this year!

Shinobu, a one-time office-mate of your trusty blogger, conducted social-cognition research early in his graduate training, before switching to cross-cultural psychology and co-authoring the landmark Markus and Kitayama (1991) article, which was published in Psychological Review. The rest, as they say, is history, with Shinobu generating a huge output of cross-cultural research over the next 30 years (Google Scholar profile).

Of the UM social-psychology graduate students who were around from roughly 1984-1989 (either in my cohort, a little older, or a little younger), Shinobu is the first to win a DSC award (John Bargh, a 1981 Ph.D., won the DSC in 2014). See list of DSC recipients.

Several faculty members whose time at UM spanned the eighties (and in some cases, much longer) have also received  DSC recognition: Bob Zajonc (at Michigan from 1955-1994, DSC in 1978), Dick Nisbett (1971- 2017, now emeritus; DSC in 1991), Claude Steele (1987-1991, DSC 2003), and Hazel Markus (1975-1994, DSC 2008).

Professor James Jackson (1944-2020)

By now, most people in the UM social psychology community are probably aware of the September 1 passing of Professor James Jackson, a fixture at the university since the early 1970s. James' career is summarized in this New York Times article (link) that came out a few days ago. I noted in a Facebook posting that:

James was the social psych graduate-program director at Michigan the year my cohort entered (Fall 1984). He met with us every week, sharing his warmth and career-development advice with us. He also led the pioneering National Survey of Black Americans.

(James's research with the NSBA, in fact, was a major point of emphasis in the Times article.)

Comments to my Facebook posting included the following:

• I wasn’t in the social area, but that didn’t stop James from meeting with me when I had some questions, and greeting me with warmth and interest in how I was doing every time our paths crossed at UM, and through the years following. 
• Such sad news. James was a pioneer in so many ways, and an amazing mentor to multiple generations of students. He always greeted us with a warm smile, and helped establish the supportive, collaborative environment at Michigan. 
• At some event for students, James said, "You get a PhD because you have a love affair with knowledge." That's not the exact quote, but I still repeat those words of wisdom to my own students. 
• I caught up with James just a few years ago (2018) at the [American Public Health Association] annual meeting. He gave the most thought provoking talk and was so warm and cordial when I went up to speak with him afterwards. He was there to receive the Rema Lapousse award for outstanding contribution to psychiatric epidemiology. 
• He was a wonderful colleague and my heart goes out to Toni and their two daughters, Ariana and Kendra.
• Very sorry to hear this! I caught up with James a decade ago, and it was great to see him. He was happy and healthy and kidding around like always. Such sad news!! 
• So sorry about this. I have terrific memories of James. 
• James was always super-nice. I'm so sorry to hear he is gone. 
• This is so sad to hear; James was always so warm to the grad students of color. He was a balm for our experience. 
• So so sad. He was the social area chair when my cohort came in. He mentored us, humored us, taught us and even partied with us!

A picture I took with James in 2009, when I was visiting campus for a small academic conference, appears in this older posting.

New Book by Bill von Hippel

Bill von Hippel, who received his Ph.D. in social psych at Michigan in 1990 and now is a professor at the University of Queensland in Australia, has a new book out, entitled The Social Leap: The New Evolutionary Science of Who We Are, Where We Come From, and What Makes Us Happy. I first learned about the book a few weeks ago when I saw it sitting on a new-arrivals shelf at my local Barnes & Noble in Lubbock, Texas!

Top Journals' Editorial Ranks Filled with 80s Michigan Ph.D. Holders

If you're actively submitting manuscripts to top social-personality psychology journals, there's a good chance your paper has crossed -- or will cross -- the desk of a 1980s' U-M Ph.D. recipient. Graduates from that era have served as head or associate editors of journals for 20 years or more. It's just that now, the Maize and Blue influence seems greater than it's been in a long time.

The Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, published by the national office of the American Psychological Association, has long been regarded as the top empirical outlet in the field. Since the start of 2017, Shinobu Kitayama has edited JPSP's Attitudes and Social Cognition section (one of three). Shinobu, a one-time office-mate of mine and a 1987 Michigan Ph.D., returned to U-M as a faculty member around 2004, after serving on the faculties of the University of Oregon and Kyoto University (Japan). An interview with Shinobu on his vision for his section appears here.

Chris Crandall is editor of Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, the flagship empirical journal of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology. Chris finished his Ph.D. at Michigan the same year as Shinobu and, as a further coincidence, also began his editorship at the outset of 2017. Chris has been on the faculty at the University of Kansas since 1992.

The Society for Personality and Social Psychology also publishes Personality and Social Psychology Review, an outlet for pieces that integrate prior research in a given area and propound new theoretical directions.Who edits PSPR? None other than Monica Biernat, a 1989 U-M Ph.D., who is finishing up the four-year term she began in 2014. Monica has also been on the Kansas faculty since 1992.

Finally, Bill von Hippel, a 1990 Michigan Ph.D. and current faculty member at the University of Queensland in Australia, is an associate editor for Psychological Science, the flagship empirical journal of the Association for Psychological Science.

Krosnick Wins AAPOR Lifetime Achievement Award

Jon Krosnick, a 1985 Ph.D. from the social psych program at Michigan, has been awarded the American Association for Public Opinion Research's lifetime achievement award. A faculty member at Stanford (and before that at Ohio State), Jon has been a leading figure in survey-research methodology and the study of attitudes, in particular. In 2007, I wrote on this blog about Jon's appearance before a Congressional committee on the use of survey methods to gather systematic data from airline pilots on risk-elevating events (e.g., "miscommunications between pilots and air traffic controllers, disturbances caused by passengers, bird strikes, or aircraft flying too close to one another"). Congrats to Jon!