Welcome to the April/May 2026 edition of the Vanderbilt University Department of Psychology Newsletter!
As the academic year comes to a close, we are proud to celebrate the many accomplishments of our faculty, students, and alumni. This issue highlights prestigious awards and fellowships, exciting research developments, notable publications, and national recognition for members of our department. We also honor our 2026 graduates and award recipients, recognize the contributions of our graduate students, and reflect on Dr. David Schlundt’s remarkable career as he prepares for retirement. Thank you for being part of our community, and we hope you enjoy this month's highlights from the Department of Psychology.
Thanks for reading—let’s get started!
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Alex has received a grant from the Consortium for Digital Sentience Research and Applied Work of Longview Philanthropy and Astera for research on the potential consciousness, sentience, moral status, or experiences of artificial intelligence systems. Congrats Alex!
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| Ashley Watts was named the Ruff Fant Dean’s Faculty Fellow. This fellowship is granted to support research, scholarship, and creative expression in the College of Arts & Science. Congratulations Ashley!
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Congratulations to Camille Archer, a fourth year clinical graduate student in Dr. Kaczkurkin's lab, who has been awarded an NIH National Research Service Award (NRSA) Fellowship for her proposal entitled, "Interactive effects of phasic and tonic irritability and negative life events on internalizing symptoms: Examining network connectivity."
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Congratulations to all of our 2026 graduates and award winners!
Graduates:
Seth Marx, M.S. ( Mentor: Woodman)
Sarah Jessup, PhD (Mentor: Olatunji)
Noah Robinson, PhD (Mentor: Hollon)
HyeonSeung Lee, PhD (Mentor: Park)
Leighton Durham, PhD (Mentor: Kaczkurkin)
Hee Jung Jeong, PhD (Mentor: Kaczkurkin)
Conor Smithson, PhD (Mentor: Gauthier)
Jordan Gunn, PhD (Mentor: Polyn)
Award Winners:
Allie Adamis- William F. Hodges Teaching Assistant Award
Conor Smithson- Jum Nunnally Dissertation Award
Hari Srinivasan- Vivien Casagrande Travel Award
Naomi Letson- Undergraduate Academic Achievement Award
Jayden Collado- Jum Nunnally Undergraduate Honors Research Award
Savannah Walske- Undergraduate Overall Excellence Award
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Geoff will be the keynote speaker in the annual OPAM meeting in November in San Diego, California! More information here.
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Gordon will be the keynote speaker at Psychonomics in November in San Diego, California! Learn more here.
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André gave a TEDxNashville talk titled "The Predictive Brain" on May 14th at ELM Nashville. More information here.
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David Schlundt's Last Lecture |
Dr. David Schlundt gave his last lecture on Wednesday, April 22, 2026. He will be retiring in August. Following his last class, a surprise retirement party was thrown for him by his students. Enjoy retirement David! You will be missed around the halls of Wilson Hall!
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Lee HS, Rbeiz KS, Gui Y, Babbitt K, Baxter T, Sangimino M, Bruni P, Felsenheimer A, Jelsma O, Li M, Kim MB, Peres A, Yang J, Park S. (2026) Detecting Features of Social Disconnection in First-Person Accounts of Schizophrenia; Automated Linguistic and Network Analyses. Schiz Bull Open. https://doi.org/10.1093/schizbullopen/sgag017
Lebovitz J, Kittelson AR, Sloan AR, Torregrossa L, Park S, Sheffield J. (2026) Longitudinal relationship between dissociation, paranoia, and anxiety in a clinical sample of individuals with delusions. Psychiatry Res. 362, 117174. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychres.2026.117174
Vik A, Galvez-Pol A, Park S, Tsakiris M (2026) Politics Embodied: the Bodily Experience of Political Emotions and its Political Consequences. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA, 123 (20) e2534895123. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2534895123
More about the publication here
Rosen C, Tong L, Lebovitz J, Park S, Humpston C. (2026) A 20-year Descriptive Phenomenological Study of Depersonalization and Derealization as an Alteration in Sense of Self and Lifeworld. Schizophrenia Bulletin. 52(3) 1–12. https://doi.org/10.1093/schbul/sbag013
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Will Quackenbush, 4th Year PhD Candidate: SPINES (Summer program in Neuroscience, Excellence & Success), Marine Biological Lab, U Chicago
Hari Srinivasan, 4th year PhD Candidate: Vivian Casagrande Travel Award
Adam Tiesman, 1st year PhD Student: Neural Systems and Behavior (Summer program), Marine Biological Lab, U Chicago
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Alenka is an incoming graduate student who will be working in the Woodman Lab. She was awarded a prestigious pre-doctoral fellowship from the National Science Foundation. Her research grant proposed new electrophysiological experiments and will fund three years of her graduate training. Alenka will start graduate school in August after trying to repeat as an NCAA national champion coxswain this summer. She’s also won awards previously at Trinity College, where she is about to graduate. Read more here.
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GRAD STUDENT APPRECIATION WEEK |
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Thank you grad students for all your hard work this year. We appreciate you!
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