In Memory of George Psathas (1929-2018)
We mourn the passing of George Psathas, which occurred on November 15, 2018. He was professor of Sociology at Boston University until his retirement in 1997. George Psathas was born in 1929 in New Haven, Connecticut. He received his B.A. at Yale University in 1950, his M.A. at the University of Michigan in 1951 and his Ph.D. at Yale University in 1956. From 1963 to 1968 he was Associate Professor at Washington University in St. Louis. George Psathas is the co-founder of the Society for Phenomenology and the Human Sciences (SPHS) as well as founding editor of Human Studies. A Journal for Philosophy and the Social Sciences. He was Honorary President of the International Institute for Ethnomethodology and Conversation Analysis. It was his achievement to introduce the paradigm of Phenomenological Sociology in to US American sociological thought, following specifically the works of Alfred Schütz and Harold Garfinkel. He also made a special contribution to the promotion of ethnomethodology. We keep George Psathas in memory as an outstanding sociologist and ethnomethodologist.
Jochen Dreher
The Society for Phenomenology and the Human Sciences is the leading academic society in the United States concerned with the continuing theoretical development and practical application of the phenomenological tradition in the human sciences. SPHS encourages the application of phenomenological methodology to specific concrete investigations within the human and social sciences. The diverse fields represented in the membership of the Society include anthropology, communication studies, counseling, education, ethnography, ethnomethodology, geography, history, linguistics, nursing, pedagogy, philosophy, political theory, psychology, social theory, and sociology.
by George Psathas
The Society for Phenomenology and the Human Sciences (SPHS) held its first offical meetings in 1981 jointly with the Society for Phenomenology and Existential Philosophy (SPEP) at Northwestern University though preliminary discussions and preparations for the new Society had been in progress for a few years before this.
Membership is open to all those who share common interests with the aims and purposes of the organization, namely, "... to promote a community for those scholars concerned with the perspectives of phenomenology and related perspectives in the human sciences...(and) to promote fruitful and free discussions of developments pertaining to theoretical, empirical and substantive issues concerning these fields."