Picnic

Program Events

Program Events

The program hosts a monthly colloquia series featuring leading clinicians and researchers in mental health throughout New York City and beyond. These events create a dynamic space for dialogue, inspire collaborative research, and foster meaningful connections between our program and distinguished experts in the mental health field. 

Take a look below for a list of the wonderful talks that took place in the 2025-2026 academic year!

Katherine M. Keyes, Ph.D. is a Susan Laskar Brody Professor of Population Mental Health at the Department of Epidemiology, Columbia University. Her talk explored the spatial, temporal, and internet-mediated dynamics of suicide clusters and their implications for prediction and targeted prevention.

 

This is the poster for the talk given by Edward A. Vessel, PhD, who is an Eugene Surowitz Assistant Professor at the Department of Psychology at CCNY. His talk is titled "Neuroaesthetics: Art as a window to the subjective mind." In this talk, Dr. Vessel describes behavioral, brain imaging and computational findings that highlight the personal nature of aesthetic appeal yet also reveal insights into underlying mechanisms.
Talk by Kenneth Barish, Ph.D, who is a clinical professor of psychology at Weill Cornell Medicine. The talk is titled: BRIDGING OUR POLITICAL DIVIDE: HOW LIBERALS AND CONSERVATIVES CAN UNDERSTAND EACH OTHER AND FIND COMMON GROUND.
This talk titled "Reshaping Clinical Psychology" by Leora Trub, PhD explores how emerging clinicians can navigate digital culture with intention-integrating its innovations while critically resisting its pressures —to uphold the integrity and preserve the core values of clinical practice. She is an Associate Professor at Dyson College of Arts and Sciences at Pace University.
Paris "AJ" Adkins-Jackson, PhD, MPH is an assistant professor at Department of Epidemiology and Sociomedical Sciences at Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University. Her talk is aimed at demonstrating how historic exposure to structural racism affects life course health.
Program Events
Q & A Presents: From Freud to fMRI: Past & Future Understandings of Consciousness, A Talk with Dr. Alfredo Spagna, Columbia University, Oct 1, 4:15pm-5pm,

Queer and Allies (Q&A) will be hosting its inaugural Queer Speaker event on Oct 1st 2024, 4:15-5pm bringing in consciousness researcher Dr. Alfredo Spagna to discuss his work and expertise in consciousness to inspire queer psychologists-in-training and educate all on the evolution of consciousness. This event is open to all (Queer and Allied) within the Clinical Psychology Department. 

Dr. Alfredo Spagna is a cognitive psychologist who investigates the psychoneurological mechanisms of attention on cognition and consciousness via auditory and visual pathways. Dr. Spagna is currently a lecturer of Psychology as well as Director of Undergraduate Studies in Neuroscience and Behavior at Columbia University and has been published in Nature, Brain & Cognition alongside features in Netflix & PBS. For several years, he worked at the Paris Brain Institute at the Hospital Salpêtrière, the discovery site of many psychiatric diseases and conceptualizations. Recent research projects of his have been around imagination and visual mental imagery. He hopes to advance current understanding of biological and behavioral aspects of attention in healthy individuals and clinical populations, giving way to work on new behavioral and pharmacological interventions.

Research Day
PhD students presenting posters at Research Day in the fall

The Clinical Psychology Program @ City College hosts an annual Research Day in the fall semester. This day provides a forum for students in residence and faculty to present and discuss their research, to receive critical feedback from peers, and to generate ideas for future study. The day comprises panel discussions, a student poster session, and a key note address from a prominent clinical researcher in the field. Panels are organized around varying research methodologies as well as the intersection of theory, research, and clinical practice. Current and former students of the program present their independent research or theoretical projects, followed by an in depth discussion with the audience. Student research posters are presented during an afternoon poster session. An invited Keynote Speaker presents with an emphasis on bridging the gap between research and clinical practice. 

If you wish to attend a research day in the future, please contact our Program's Administrative Assistant for information about the day's schedule and location.

Last Updated: 09/15/2026 14:26