Psychology, History and Social Justice: The Social Past in the Personal Present

This special issue of the Journal of Social Issues focuses on different ways that social history and psychology--always co-constructing each other--matter. Focused on major events and social movements of the twentieth century, we highlight work that psychologists have done that allow us, as a field, to take seriously the relationships between social-level events and individuals' identities and self-representations, emotional lives and well-being, approaches to social justice and collective action, motivations and accomplishments. The individual and collective pursuit of social justice makes links between history and psychology visible along with their implications for relations within and between social groups.

Andrea G. Hunter is an Associate Professor in the Department of Human Development and Family Studies and the Director of the School of Health and Human Sciences Office of Diversity and Inclusion at The University of North Carolina at Greensboro.?Her research interests focus on African American families, and the influences of race, gender, social class, and culture on the life course, families, and well-being.

Abigail J. Stewart is Sandra Schwartz Tangri Distinguished University Professor of Psychology and Women’s Studies at the University of Michigan. Her current research examines educated women’s lives and personalities; women’s movement activism both in the US and globally; gender, race and generation; and institutional change in the academy.