We are delighted to announce the three winners of the inaugural SAS Regional Events Competition!
Title: Gateway Affective Science Summit: Advancing Interdisciplinary Affective Science
Region: Missouri/Illinois, United States (e.g., St. Louis, Kansas City, Chicago, Champaign, and neighboring areas)
Organizers: Drs. Emily Willroth, Tammy English, Kristen Petagna, Hillary Anger Elfenbein, Chenyang Lu, and Joan Luby, Washington University in St. Louis
Brief description: A full-day summit including interdisciplinary flash talk sessions, a “Design Sprint” competition to further specific collaborations, and a “Collaborator Matchmaking” salon. This approach parallels the interdisciplinarity of the hosts, who represent psychology and brain sciences, psychiatry, business, and engineering.
Title: Making Meaning in and of the Body: Affective Science as a Bridge Between Disciplines
Region: New York, United States
Organizers: Dr. Maia ten Brink, Columbia University, with Doctoral Candidates Yikai Xu, New York University, and Marshawn Brewer, Fordham University
Brief description: A half-day event including early career scholar and trainee lightning talks, invited faculty talks, and structured networking and discussion periods. The thematic focus is embodiment and brain/body/culture interactions, including fostering interdisciplinary knowledge of emotion, meaning-making, and health.
Title: SAS Sydney Symposium on Emotion Regulation
Region: Sydney, Australia
Organizer(s): Drs. Yue Li and Carolyn MacCann, The University of Sydney
Brief description: A one-day symposium on emotion regulation incorporating networking opportunities, early career and trainee blitz talks, and invited faculty talks. Topics include interpersonal emotion regulation, emotion regulation and resilience, and emotion regulation and mental health in youth.
Building on a successful pilot event “SASolina” in the North Carolina, U.S. region (Organizers: Drs. Christian Waugh and Sara Levens), a call went out in April 2026 to invite applications from SAS members interested in hosting a regional event. We received many strong applications (11 applications submitted in total) from regions across different countries and continents. Proposals were reviewed systematically across a range of criteria, including event format, scholarly content in affective science, networking and community building, inclusion of faculty and trainees, potential for SAS outreach and membership growth, feasibility and planning, and budget appropriateness.
The three selected regional team winners each will receive $1,000 in support from SAS to host events that build a sense of local connection while promoting SAS globally.
Congratulations, and we hope these events inspire others to come together to foster affective science connections within their region!