ISTP 2026 Conference
“Theorizing in Dark Times – Art, Narrative, Politics”
June 8 – June 12, 2026 | Brooklyn, NY, USA
Conference Agenda
Overview and details of the sessions of this conference. Please select a date or location to show only sessions at that day or location. Please select a single session for detailed view (with abstracts and downloads if available).
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Daily Overview |
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Panel: Psychoanalysis and Ideology Location: North Hall 110 Session Chair: Sonja Janičić | |
| Presentation 4 | |
Metatheory and Social Justice: Reimagining Social Psychology through Humanism and the Liberatory agenda of Eric Fromm and B R Ambedkar OP Jindal Global University, India This proposal presents a case for developing a metatheory of social justice within social psychology that activates and raises our consciousness beyond the ascribed realms of oppression and demeaning power relations. Focusing on India's sociopolitical realities, it reflects on broader theoretical frameworks that shape and transform the everyday consciousness of people. Theory, in this view, is not merely a logical arrangement of variables explaining mechanisms; it is a living, political act that redefines its own stance on neutrality and purpose. Whose agenda a theory advances is itself a moral and political question. Most theories in social psychology describe mechanisms or propose limited solutions, yet few critically engage with the conditions of oppression that structure social life. This work argues that theory-building in times of systemic violence and injustice must move beyond Western epistemologies and engage with democratic sensibilities and sensemaking. Drawing from the humanism of Erich Fromm and B. R. Ambedkar, this work is grounded in radical humanism, one that honours the agency of all beings through relationships of love, care, and mutual recognition. Such a framework reimagines theory as a force of social transformation and as an act of resistance, expanding the ethical and political horizons of social psychology. | |

