New Graduate Seminar: Professional and Conceptual Issues in Psychology This new informal graduate seminar on will be lead by Brian Scholl and Mitch Prinstein. It will be a continuation and expansion of the seminar series that Mitch Prinstein, Bethany Teachman, Geoffrey Cohen, and Joe Mahoney organized last year. We will meet informally in the Kirtland lounge on Monday evenings at 5 pm -- fueled by free pizza and soda! -- to discuss various issues which are rarely explicitly discussed but which affect all of us as students and researchers in psychology, regardless of area.     This time around you can actually get credit for these meetings via a new 'lunch' course # -- Psychology 727 -- but we will continue to have an informal atmosphere with different students and colleagues visiting each week. We hope you'll register, and we ask only that those who do try to attend most of the discussions.     We'll focus on several different types of issues.     Some of our discussion topics will concern practical issues, such as: How to decipher journal reviews and actions letters How to sell yourself on the academic job market How to teach a class, write a grant, choose a postdoc position How to negotiate a contract once you land a job Others will be more 'sociological' in nature, such as: What are the characters of the various journals in each area of psychology -- the best ones, the worst ones, and everything in between? What are the major current trends and fads in areas outside your own? Still other meetings will touch on more abstract issues, such as: What is psychology? How is it evolving? How should you balance depth and breadth in graduate school? Finally, we will also devote several meetings to the art of giving job talks and conference talks, and for this purpose we'll invite students to give practice talks for the group, who will then focus discussion on ways in which the talk might be improved. We will make sure to have this kind of opportunity available before conferences, defenses, etc. so everyone will have a chance to practice their talk.     These meetings should be an informal and exciting way to learn about some critical issues which affect us all, but which are rarely explicitly discussed. Mitch and I will lead these discussions, but we will always try to have several other colleagues join us, to get a range of perspectives from different areas.     Our first meeting will be at 5 pm on Monday September 10th, in the Kirtland Lounge. We'll talk about how to balance breadth and depth in your graduate research career: What are the advantages and disadvantages of focusing one project vs. several projects? We'll also ask you for other related topics that you'd like to discuss. In addition, if you have ideas for other useful topics in the meantime, please forward them to Brian & Mitch.     We hope you'll join us!     Cheers,     -Brian Scholl & Mitch Prinstein