Profile

I was brought up in Birmingham (Peaky Blinders anybody? I don’t have the hat though) but recently moved to London for a research assistant job before starting my PhD. As you will find out I love books and have quite a few favourites (Harry Potter, Harry Potter and Harry Potter). My favourite thing ever is to have a lazy Sunday which involves a hot chocolate, pyjamas (including the bed socks, don’t judge me) and absolutely anything on Netflix.

I also lived in Rio de Janeiro in Brazil for one year during my Psychology degree. I was a psychology research assistant there on a placement doing research which looked at how Virtual Reality (kind of like video games) can affect our emotions. It was a really great experience that I got through university and was a great way to meet new people, make new friends and experience a brand new culture!

Right now I am living with some friends in London, we live above a Pizza Express which has worked out perfectly with my pizza based diet. On the weekends it also gives me a great chance to explore around the nearby parks including Hampstead Heath and Primrose Hill. In the summer months I love to go swimming and have been told there are ponds in Hampstead Heath used for swimming so that will be fun!

So, currently I am a PhD researcher at Royal Holloway University of London. It’s a pretty cool place with pretty cool people, plus the building kind of reminds me of Hogwarts (except for the fact it is a bright shade of red/orange but hey it’s as close as I could get).

What is cool (or what I think is cool) is that some of research will use some fun equipment to look at what our brains can actually do when we are reading or learning new words! This is an Electroencephalography net (don’t worry I can’t say it either) otherwise known as an EEG net! I used this during my degree to measure brain activity when we see and recognise words. We can also use equipment like the Magnetic Resonance Imaging machine or known as the MRI machine which can show us your brain and can be used to even show which parts of your brain are active when doing certain tasks!

For my research I like to look at why people read and what pushes us to want to read more. For example, why are you reading this right now? Probably because you want to find out more about me. Or have you ever read a book and forgotten where you are just for a second and other times you can’t put a book down? Why does that happen and how can we use this to help others want to read more too. Reading sometimes can be a scary especially when you don’t feel you’re good enough or words can sometimes seem too big and complicated, and this can lead people to want to read less but I want to change that!