The Program Committee invites poster submissions for the nineteenth annual meeting of the Society for Research on Identity Formation, which will be held as a pre-conference Special Interest Group (SIG) meeting of The Society for Research on Adolescence. The meeting will be held in the Vancouver Conference Center on Wednesday, March 7, 2012, in the late afternoon. For information on the SRA conference and hotel accommodations, please see the SRA website at http://s-r-a.org/biennial-meeting. As has become tradition for the SRIF meetings held in conjunction with SRA, this year's program will include an opening roundtable on Wednesday, March 7, followed by a brief business meeting, and the poster session. More information here

2011 SRIF 18th Annual Conference meeting in Daytona Beach!

Thanks Everyone for a Successful Annual Meeting in Daytona Beach!

SRIF meets annually—as a preconference special interest group in conjunction with SRA’s biennial meeting; and a 2½ day stand alone meeting at a location in the U.S. or Canada on alternate years. This year, the stand alone meeting took place in Daytona Beach on February 3rd though 6th, 2011 at the Plaza Resort & Spa, directly on the beach. The conference was organized by our local arrangements coordinator, Steve Berman (University of Central Florida), and our program chair, Andrea White (Kenyon College) with 62 people in attendance. In addition to the U.S. and Canada, there were scholars from South Africa, Norway, Israel, Finland, Japan, Sweden, and the Netherlands. It is the SRIF tradition to begin each meeting with a roundtable introduction (moderated by former SRIF President Phil Dreyer, Claremont University) in which all attendees have the opportunity to introduce themselves and summarize their identity-linked research interests. This is a beneficial exercise for faculty and students members to learn of the range of research possibilities in the field of identity and to be updated on one another’s research activities. Many collaborative projects have sprung from this roundtable session. The roundtable is also useful for students to identify possible mentors for their graduate studies and to meet scholars in the field whose works they are reading. One thing we value about SRIF is the fact that it is accessible to students—there is always a large contingent of students from various institutions at the SRIF meetings. Over the years we’ve watched students mature in their professional development and grow into scholars who, in turn, mentor new student members. We also value the international scope of membership in SRIF with several cross-cultural collaborations having been formed.

Session topics spanned a broad range of research relevant to the interests of identity researchers including international and cultural perspectives, religion and morality, parenting, attachment and intimacy. There were a number of exciting interactive sessions on such topics as fostering identity development through interventions, working with at-risk youth, measuring positive identity outcomes, promoting identity development through education in the classroom, and the use of film to teach identity concepts. A number of our founding members held a session on identity and retirement. The conference included a poster session where 37 posters were presented by both faculty and students from a range of academic institutions. Carol Markstrom (West Virginia University), outgoing President of SRIF, gave a Presidential Address on “Multidimensional Identity Conceptualizations and Measurements among American Indian Adolescents”, and Harke Bosma (University of Groningen, Netherlands) gave the Keynote Address on “The Dynamics of Identity Development”. Student Awards were announced for best Doctoral dissertation (Theo Klimstra, Utrecht University, Netherlands), best Master’s Thesis (Hans Saint-Eloi, Auburn University), and best Undergraduate Thesis (Jennifer Carter, University of Central Florida). Hans Saint-Eloi also won the student travel award. Concluding the conference was the annual banquet which was held at Sloppy Joe’s Restaurant at the Ocean Walk, where we had a delicious dinner and stimulating conversation. We hope to see everyone back (and a few new people) at our next annual meeting in conjunction with the Society for Research on Adolescence (SRA), in Vancouver on March 7 - 10, 2012!

IIJTR Journal now accessible from SRIF web site!

Paying SRIF members now can access the IIJTR Journal from here on the SRIF web site. Log in to your paying member account and test drive today. Once you log in simply click on the journal link to your right at the bottom of the IIJTR navigation menu.

Thanks Everyone for a Successful Annual Meeting in Philadelphia!

SRIF meets annually—as a preconference special interest group in conjunction with SRA’s biennial meeting; and a 2½ day meeting at a location in the U.S. or Canada the spring of alternate years. This year, our shorter meeting took place in Philadelphia with SRA and was organized by Program Chair, Andrea White (Kenyon College) with approximately 75 in attendance. It is the SRIF tradition to begin each meeting with a roundtable introduction (moderated by former SRIF President Phil Dreyer, Claremont University) in which all attendees have the opportunity to introduce themselves and summarize their identity-linked research interests. This is a beneficial exercise for faculty and students members to learn of the range of research possibilities in the field of identity and to be updated on one another’s research activities. Many collaborative projects have sprung from this roundtable session. The roundtable is also useful for students to identify possible mentors for their graduate studies and to meet scholars in the field whose works they are reading. One thing we value about SRIF is the fact that it is accessible to students—there is always a large contingent of students from various institutions at the SRIF meetings. Over the years we’ve watched students mature in their professional development and grow into scholars who, in turn, mentor new student members. We also value the international scope of membership in SRIF with several cross-cultural collaborations having been formed. At the recent meeting, in addition to the U.S. and Canada, there were scholars from Norway, Japan, the Netherlands, Belgium, Israel, Italy, and Brazil.

In addition to the roundtable introductions at the SRIF meeting, a business meeting is always held and there were three items of particular importance this year. First, locations for the 2011 SRIF meeting were discussed with Daytona Beach ultimately being selected. More information will appear on the website in the near future. A second topic of discussion was the new SRIF website on which the Society and the journal now share the same space. There are many networking, resource, and informational opportunities available on the website with more to follow, including a link to teaching resources on identity. A third topic of discussion was the upcoming SRIF elections with a call being distributed to the membership for nominations with the ballot to follow in the fall.

The preconference concluded with 30 posters presented by both faculty and students from a range of academic institutions. Topics spanned a broad range of research relevant to the interests of identity researchers including ethnic identity, globalization, identity distress, school contexts, romantic partners, religiosity, longitudinal research, and positive youth development. A further highlight at this year’s SRIF meeting in Philadelphia was the annual banquet and presentation on Thursday evening with Dr. Jacqueline Eccles speaking on “Linking Personal and Social Identities to Expectancies and Values.” Approximately 55 SRIF members and friends took part in the family-style Italian meal served at Maggiano’s.

Members add your recent publications and indentity measures to the SRIF web site

The new SRIF web site makes it easy for members to provide a reference and abstract information of recent publications. To add your recent publication visit the Add recent publication page. Recent publications members add to the SRIF web site data base will be auto-published on the SRIF - Member Publications page. Members can also add their identity measures to the new SRIF web site. To add your identity measure visit the Add identity measure page. To learn more about adding a recent publication or identity measure visit the FAQ page or SRIF - Contact page to get answers to your questions.

The time is now to join SRIF or retain your membership status

SRIF unveils the new SRIF and IIJTR web site! The face of SRIF is changing but the mission remains the same. Providing academic professionals and students around the globe an organization devoted to sharing their common interests is the highest priority for SRIF and IIJTR. The Society for Research on Identity Formation is now proud to provide members with this new web based community, enabling a variety of organizational and networking tools.