We are delighted to announce that the recipient of the sixth annual International Society for Self and Identity Early Career Contribution Award is Wendi Gardner.

Wendi received her PhD from Ohio State University in 1996 under the supervision of Marilynn Brewer. She then took a job with Northwestern University where she has remained to this day.

In addition to her important work in unconscious and rudimentary levels of evaluation and emotion, Wendi has conducted ground-breaking work on key social aspects of the self-concept. In particular, she has investigated how people define the self socially as a function of culture, gender, social needs, and situational primes. In a number of clever studies, Wendi has deftly demonstrated how priming collective identities can reveal differences in relational aspects of the self-concept that mirror those traditionally found between cultures. Much of the field’s understanding of collective identities has grown out of Wendi’s highly influential research program. Her creativity, insight, and experimental finesse continue to impact the ways that we conceive of the social self.