W. Gerrod Parrott, Department of Psychology, Georgetown University, ISRE President Emeritus
I like to read the credits at the end of movies. I sit in the dark theater long after most other audience members have left, watching an enormous list of jobs and people scroll upwards. It’s interesting to see the many jobs and locations, but I don’t entirely know why I do this. I don’t even understand many of the job titles—what is a Key Grip, a Gaffer, or a Foley Artist anyway? I think part of my motivation is the awe I feel at the sheer number of highly specialized and talented people who must work together to produce the film I just saw. My own job usually isn’t like this—scholarship is a solitary activity much of the time, and I find the idea of working with others toward a common goal to be very appealing.
Being President of ISRE for the past four years was a chance to work on something more like a movie. I joined a team of people who treasure our Society and who want to continue to develop its tradition of promoting interdisciplinary and international study of emotions and moods. During my years in office many people volunteered their time and skills toward that cause. Now that my term is finished, I would like to “roll the credits.”
The first credits go to the three ISRE officers who worked most closely with me to ensure that ISRE’s daily operations went smoothly. Our Membership Secretary, Diana Montague, screened membership applications and provided the warm welcome that was many current members’ first introduction to ISRE. Our Website Coordinator, Ursula Hess, worked wonders in getting a very rudimentary web platform to perform a variety of new functions at very minimal cost. Jeanne Tsai served as Treasurer at the beginning of my term, and maintained and passed along a well-organized set of records. The Treasurer for most of my term was Yochi Cohen-Charash, who frugally kept the books and significantly built up ISRE’s reserves. All three performed services for which a larger organization might hire assistants, and they deserve our gratitude because they made it possible for ISRE to operate efficiently on modest revenue.
A second set of credits goes to six ISRE officers who oversaw the operation of our Society’s intellectual products. These would be the Conference Program Chairs, journal editors, and newsletter editors. The Program Chair for the Kyoto meeting was Brian Parkinson, and for the Berkeley meeting was Joe Campos—both supervised stimulating and innovative conferences. The Editors of Emotion Review when I became President were Jim Russell and Lisa Feldman Barrett, and when I stepped down were Jim Russell and Christine Harris, and in the middle was Jim Russell alone. All three editors did superb service by making Emotion Review an outstanding academic publication. Finally, the editors of our newsletter The Emotion Researcher were Christine Harris and Nathan Consedine when I began, with Christine handling the job alone subsequently. They produced a series of attractively laid-out issues that have enduring scholarly value in addition to the news and announcements of a typical newsletter.
Finally, the credits should list the elected board of directors, whose judgment and guidance have been so helpful as ISRE continues to evolve. I worked with two elected boards. Between the Leuven and Kyoto meetings the directors were Louis Charland, Ann Kring, Makoto Nakamura, and Dawn Robinson. Between Kyoto and Berkeley they were Hideki Ohira, Mikko Salmela, David Sander, and Jan Stets. I am grateful to them all for their service.
This list of credits is limited, perhaps artificially, to those whose positions are named as officers in ISRE’s Bylaws. There are of course many others: local organizers for the conferences, members of the Program Committees for those conferences, members of Emotion Review’s editorial board, and countless other ISRE members who have contributed to ISRE’s operation and evolution over the past four years. With this rolling of the credits we acknowledge all their contributions and welcome those of the people who have stepped forward to continue ISRE’s activities in the years ahead.
