About

The Society for Perception Studies began at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, from conversations that felt too important to remain within the ivory tower.

Those conversations kept returning to the role perception plays in what we come to know. Perception precedes knowledge. We devote enormous attention to what we know, but far less to the ways of seeing that guide our attention, organize our experience, and influence how we understand what we encounter.

We live in an age in which countless forces compete to influence what we pay attention to and how we understand the world, often without our awareness. Examining how we inherit our ways of seeing, and how they might change, is the work of the Society.

No single lens reveals the entire picture. SPS moves between anthropology, philosophy, psychology, religion, science, literature, the arts, and other fields to approach the same questions from different directions.

Today, the Society makes filmed conversations, publishes written and illustrated pieces, and maintains a library of works recommended by our guests. The Commons is where those questions continue, and anyone can take part.

The Society is run by its founding chapter.