southern society for philosophy and psychology

What southern society for philosophy and psychology does

The Southern Society for Philosophy and Psychology (SSPP) is a nonprofit professional academic society founded in 1904 and headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia. The society serves professional philosophers and psychologists — primarily PhD-holding academics and graduate students — across the Southeast United States and increasingly at universities nationwide. Its core offerings consist of an annual meeting (typically March or April) for paper presentation and peer exchange, the Richard M. Griffith Memorial Award (two $500 prizes annually for early-career papers), graduate student grants of approximately $200 each, and a public archive of past programs, newsletters, and meeting sites dating to 1958.

SSPP operates as a membership-based community rather than a technology company. Its underlying platform is a web-based membership management system with PayPal integration that handles account creation, dues collection, paper submission, meeting registration, and donations. Officer and council roles are filled by academics at universities including NYU, Purdue, Rutgers, Florida International University, and Georgia Southern, and the organization is governed by an elected council led by a President, President-Elect, Secretary, Treasurer, and Membership Coordinator.

The business model is funded through three streams: recurring annual membership dues (Full, Associate, Emeritus, and Honorary Life tiers), voluntary donations processed via PayPal, and meeting registration fees. Membership is the primary engagement mechanism — applicants create online accounts, pay dues in advance, and are reviewed by the Membership Coordinator. No external investors, funding rounds, or parent organizations are involved. The society is sustained entirely by individual member contributions and donations, with no disclosed revenue, no commercial partnerships, and no technology licensing.

Name

southern society for philosophy and psychology

Legal name

Southern Society for Philosophy and Psychology

Website

https://southernsociety.org

Company type

Private

Founded year

1904

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1,001–5,000 employees

Short description

The Southern Society for Philosophy and Psychology is a nonprofit academic society founded in 1904 that serves professional philosophers and psychologists through annual meetings, membership tiers, research awards, and graduate student grants across the Southeast United States.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Professional Academic Society

NAICS

Business, Professional, Labor, Political, and Similar Organizations (8139), Grantmaking and Giving Services (81321)

SIC

Services-Membership Organizations (8600)

akta.pro industry

PRIMARYMPAJABAK

Scholarly Societies & Conference Proceedings Publishing

Media, Entertainment & Sports/Publishing (Books, News, Magazines)/Educational & Academic Publishing (Textbooks, Scholarly, STM)

SECONDARYEDAGAFAD

Social Sciences Scholarly Publishing

Education/Educational Publishing & Learning Content/Academic & Scholarly Publishing (Journals, Monographs)

Keywords

• Academic society services
• Professional membership organization
• Annual academic conferences
• Scholarly exchange programs
• Graduate research grants

Headquarters

HQ city

Atlanta

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2C

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Operations, Marketing or Sales, Technology or R&D, Others

Revenue model

1. Membership Dues: Annual membership dues collected from professional philosophers and psychologists. Members must pay dues in advance of their application being considered. Dues are credited for the annual year in which they are paid.
2. Donations: The society accepts monetary donations through PayPal to support its activities. Donations are voluntary contributions from members and supporters.
3. Meeting Registration: Revenue generated from registration fees for the annual meeting, though specific amounts are not publicly disclosed.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels1 record

Marketing channels4 records

Core offering

SSPP is a membership-based professional academic society that organizes an annual meeting where philosophers and psychologists share and recognize research, awards the Richard M. Griffith Memorial Award to outstanding early-career papers, offers graduate student grants of approximately $200, and maintains historical archives of the society since its 1904 founding. Members pay annual dues through an online account system, with PayPal processing for both dues and voluntary donations.

Product overview

The Southern Society for Philosophy and Psychology (SSPP) is a professional academic society founded in 1904 that operates as a membership-based organization rather than a technology product company. Its core offerings consist of an Annual Meeting conference service for sharing research, a Membership Platform for account management and registration, the Richard M. Griffith Memorial Award recognizing early-career academics, Graduate Student Grants supporting doctoral researchers, and Archives preserving the society's historical documents. These services are interconnected through an online account system that facilitates meeting registration, paper submissions, and membership management.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Segments2 records

Ideal customer profiles2 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Scale indicators1 record

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights4 records

Broad incumbents

• American Philosophical Association: The largest professional society for philosophers in the US. Comparable in being a membership-based scholarly society, but operates at national scale across three divisions and covers philosophy broadly — not just the philosophy-psychology intersection.
• Psychonomic Society: International scientific society for experimental psychologists. Comparable in annual meeting structure and member-driven governance, but operates at a much larger scientific scale focused on cognitive and experimental psychology.
• American Psychological Association: The dominant professional society for psychologists in the US. Analogous to SSPP in membership-based structure and annual convention, but operates at a much larger scale and covers all psychology subfields rather than just the philosophy-philosophy intersection.

Regional players

• Eastern Psychological Association: Regional psychology society for the eastern US. Comparable to SSPP as a regional psychology-focused society with annual meetings, but geographically partitioned to the East Coast rather than the Southeast.
• Southern Political Science Association: Regional academic society serving the Southern US for political scientists — a parallel regional model to SSPP but in a different discipline. Useful as a structural benchmark for how multi-discipline regional societies operate.
• Midwestern Psychological Association: Regional psychology society serving the Midwest US. Parallel structure to SSPP's regional model but covering a different geography and only psychology (not interdisciplinary philosophy).

Emerging players

• Philosophy of Science Association: International professional organization for philosophers of science. Adjacent to SSPP's philosophy-psychology intersection, particularly relevant for members working in philosophy of cognitive science and psychology.

Direct peers

• Society for Philosophy and Psychology: The national interdisciplinary society at the same philosophy-psychology intersection as SSPP. It is the most direct peer — same intellectual focus, broader geographic scope, and parallel annual meeting structure.
• Southeastern Psychological Association: The most direct geographic and disciplinary peer of SSPP — another regional professional society for psychologists specifically serving the same Southern US region. Provides a direct comparison for member recruitment, meeting cadence, and program scope.
• Metaphysical Society of America: A small, focused professional society for philosophers specializing in metaphysics. Comparable in scale, governance model, and member-funded structure to SSPP, though narrower in disciplinary focus.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat3 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/southern-society-for-philosophy-and-psychology

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles20 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

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M&A

Investments

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Frequently asked questions about southern society for philosophy and psychology