Lonner Lecture Series: A Brief History

Prof. Walter J. Lonner

Emeritus Professor of Psychology

Western Washington University

May 5, 2026

This series of invited lectures began in 2006. When inaugurated, it became a fixture in the biennial congresses of the IACCP. Its inauguration was made possible when Sage Publications bought the copyright to the Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology (JCCP) from Western Washington University. The JCCP was founded in 1970 and was the main activity of Western's Center for Cross-Cultural Research, which was founded in 1969. It became an active unit in Western's Department of Psychology. Walt Lonner was co-founder of the Center as well as Founding Editor of JCCP. For the first three years, all facets of the journal were handled at Western and a Bellingham printing store. In 1972, John Dawson, head of the Psychology Department at the University of Hong Kong, was starting the IACCP and suggested to Lonner that the fledgling JCCP would be a natural addition to the effort in which he was engaged. Thus, 54 years ago, JCCP became the flagship journal of the IACCP as well as the first periodical in psychology to focus exclusively on culture. Many historical details about the IACCP and other developments can be found in a JCCP article by Berry, Lonner, and Best (February 2022).

The sale of the JCCP copyright, mentioned above, took place in Western's president's office on May 4, 2003. Sage thus added JCCP to its large number of journals. It was agreed that Sage would handle all of the financial and subscription details. A separate agreement stipulated that the IACCP would retain all editorial matter, as essentially all professional journals routinely do. In this case, however, royalties were involved. Annual royalties were set at 14%, with both Western and the IACCP to receive 7%. For the latter, that was a very large sum — far more than it had ever expected since its inauguration. It gave the Association opportunities it had never experienced. This transaction was quite beneficial to the Association.

In 2004, at the 17th IACCP Congress in Xi'an, China, the Executive Council announced the creation of the Distinguished Lonner Lecture. That honor essentially continued the essence of the Distinguished Invited Lecture Series that Lonner began years ago when he was Director of the CCCR at Western. The first invitee for this IACCP-funded series was the late Gustav Jahoda of Scotland. A psychologist, he was an honorific choice because of his early contributions to cross-cultural psychology. He was the first full-time (two-year) IACCP president.

Selecting and inviting scholars for the Lonner Lecture is the responsibility of the IACCP, in particular the organizer of the next main congress. The most important factor has been, from the beginning, the breadth of scope of those who have been nominated. As stated from the outset, there is a preference to select scholars outside the guild of cross-cultural psychology. Over more than two decades, the chosen speakers have represented anthropology, the biological sciences, linguistics, and, of course, various areas of psychology that may not feature culture to a large extent. The list below testifies to the breadth of coverage, both by field and country of the speakers.

Although one name is associated with this series — Lonner — its intent goes much further than this small accolade. It is just one story among hundreds that many devoted IACCP members could tell.

Future scholars who deliver lectures at IACCP conferences will no doubt follow the reasons why this series began in 2006. Perhaps future scholars who are invited to give these lectures will benefit from this brief historical account of the beginning and intent.

The List of Lonner Lectures

2026 — Leuven, Belgium. Teresa LaFromboise, Graduate School of Education, Development and Psychological Sciences, Stanford University. Bicultural Lives, Indigenous Futures: Identity, Language, and the Science of Well-Being.

2024 — Bali, Indonesia. Russell Gray. A New Zealand evolutionary biologist and psychologist working at the Max Planck Institute in Leipzig. Beyond Weird vs Non-Weird: Language, Culture, and Cognition in the Age of Diversity

2022 — Online. Pippa Norris, UK. Harvard Kennedy School, Harvard University, specializing in geopolitics.

2020 — (in 2021). Ara Norenzayan, Department of Psychology, University of British Columbia, Canada. Religious diversity and global cultural variation.

2018 — Guelph, Ontario, Canada. Sandra Jovchelovitch, London School of Economics and Political Science. Human development in the context of adversity: Role and resources of culture.

2016 — Nagoya, Japan. Laurence Kirmayer, Department of Social and Cultural Psychiatry, McGill University, Montreal, Canada. "Embodiment and enactment in culture-situated practice."

2014 — Reims, France. Daniel Everett, Professor of Cognitive Science, Bentley University, Waltham, Massachusetts. "On the role of culture in the aversions of language."

2012 — Stellenbosch, South Africa. Scott Atran, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique – Institut Jean Nicod; University of Michigan.

2010 — Melbourne, Australia. Lawrence Harrison (1932–2015), Tufts University. Author of Culture Matters.

2008 — Bremen, Germany. Michael Tomasello. "The human adaptation for culture."



2006 — Spetses, Greece. Gustav Jahoda (1920–2016). There may not have been a title for his lecture because he mainly talked about aspects of his career.

Note: Nine of the eleven lectures were in-person presentations. COVID forced other means of presentation, usually on line