The Society for Phenomenology and Existential Philosophy (SPEP) is a philosophical society whose initial purpose was to promote the study of phenomenology and existentialism but has since expanded to a wide array of contemporary philosophical pursuits, including critical theory, feminist philosophy, poststructuralism, critical race theory, and increasingly non-Eurocentric philosophies.
Antonio Calcagno and Shannon Mussett are the current Executive Co-Directors of SPEP.
[3][4] SPEP's first annual meeting was at Northwestern University in 1962, during which "a handful or two of phenomenologists, existentialists, and iconoclasts gathered.
[5] Now with a membership of over 2,500, SPEP has grown to be one of the largest philosophical societies in North America.
[1][6] As an acronym for Studies in Phenomenology and Existential Philosophy, "SPEP" also denotes a series of scholarly monographs and translations founded by James M. Edie and published by Northwestern University Press since the early 1960s, including works by Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Paul Ricoeur, and Edmund Husserl.