by Garth Neufeld, ACT Director

October 1, 2025

I love magic.

I love card tricks, buildings disappearing, and rabbit after rabbit after rabbit pulled from a hat. I recently saw Colin Cloud, a mentalist, in Las Vegas. It was magic. For an opening trick, he borrowed wedding rings from audience members, interlocked them, held them dangling from one another, and even let the audience tug on the 50k+ string of precious metal.

When a stage trick defies our expectations and the rules of the world as we know them, it exposes a gap in our understanding. Our critical-thinking brains then fire off multiple hypotheses to try to make sense of it all, but none closes the gap. Finally, with awe and wonder, we identify that gap: magic. [cue warm feelings + gratitude.]

The Society for the Teaching of Psychology’s (STP) Annual Conference on Teaching (ACT) has been a bit of magic for me over the years. But instead of trap doors, it has opened doors; instead of making me disappear, it has given me a place to be seen; and rather than squeezing me into a box, it has allowed me to contribute in very personal ways.

In just a couple of weeks, we will welcome 120 first-time attendees to ACT. I remember my first ACT, over 10 years ago. I was new to it all, and I knew exactly one person at the conference. It was scary. With my non-traditional professional and educational history, I didn’t know how I would be welcomed. Fortunately, there was a gap between my fearful expectations and the way this community operated.

ACT is made up of incredible, supportive colleagues who nurture one another toward success. In my experience, it is a culture of openness and generosity. Where other academic research conferences can carry an expectation of tearing down or excluding, the spirit at STP is to build up. I don’t know how else to explain my professional journey from that first ACT to this one, where I now serve as conference director.

I know that we live in a time when not everyone feels welcome. My hope, and our aim, is that ACT continues to be a refuge for people across all sorts of spectrums—a place where we come together to strengthen and support one another and celebrate the pursuit and gift of psychology. I also know that the ability to travel to an in-person conference is a privilege not everyone has. With that in mind, we will soon announce more information about our virtual teaching conference in February 2026. It will be low-cost, and we hope all will attend.

I look forward to seeing many of you soon for some ACT magic in Minneapolis!