I think one of the reasons academia is great is because it allows
you, is one of the few jobs that actually gets to
you get to do exactly what you're interested in.
I've always had a
an appreciation and love for animals and nature.
And so I started out wanting to go into conservation
and my bachelor's degree was in Zoology.
But then I went and worked in
different places in the world, Central Africa and Asia in conservation.
And I suddenly realised a lot of the discussions
were psychological questions about the people,
you know, their needs and how they thought about things. And,
and then of course, getting to know animals in that kind of capacity.
One of the places I worked in Africa was with wild gorillas, and I suddenly just kind of
became aware of all their
little personalities and their little isms and their behaviours.
And it just fascinated me.
And I just thought, I wonder if there's a, you know,
a path down that for me.
And so I,
you know, did my research and, and figured out that you
can get PhDs on this topic and I thought, you know I'm going to go for that.
And I had a friend in Africa
actually who was at that time doing her PhD
in Scotland and I thought, I'm going to go to Scotland and do it.
And then that's how I moved from the US over here and for evermore
have been in this field and it's yeah, very rewarding in a lot of different ways.
Yeah.
And what was it that brought you to Hull in particular?
Work.
Yeah, absolutely, work.
Yeah.
So Steph, was there a specific moment in your life
that made you realise you wanted to study psychology?
So I've always known that psychology, is something that I want to pursue,
but I've actually had a bit of a non-linear career path
and that's actually something that I'm really grateful for,
and I think it really informs my teaching now.
So after I finished my PhD, I worked for a bit in clinical practice,
so I was sort of delivering
interventions and doing diagnostic assessments
for people experiencing mental health difficulties.
But then I really missed the kind of academic world
and I missed kind of being in a campus environment
where people are learning new things and sort of pushing through.
And so I've ended up back in academia as a lecturer here at Hull,
but I really think I'm able to use some of my clinical experiences in my teaching.
And so I feel like I've sort of got a nice balance and I'm really
I'm really glad that life worked out that way.
And I think students really give me good
feedback on on that kind of applied aspect as well.
So I think non-linear careers are a good thing to be celebrated.
Yeah, definitely.
And yourself, Igor, you've travelled a fair bit.
So if you really want to hear about non-linear careers.
So in terms of my
basic interests, how did I become interested in psychology?
I was actually interested in literature.
I was a real bookworm.
I read a lot novels and I was interested in human behaviour
and human minds by proxy, how certain characters behaved like that.
And initially I was thinking about
actually studying for journalism.
Then I changed my mind in my thinking process
and decided actually I would like to be an expert in something.
To know really something properly, rather than writing about things,
and I don't know the subject matter really well,
and that got me then interested in psychology.
And initially I was thinking about becoming a therapist
and within the first one, two years of study,
I changed tack at that stage already
when I was exposed to what was then called biological psychology
as a subject, and I got really fascinated by the link between
the brain, the brain anatomy
and human behaviour.
And I got eventually really
hooked on to this connection
when I enrolled in a neural psychology module,
because here, that module is all about what happens
if the brain is damaged, what happens if certain brain areas are damaged?
And I really got fascinated by the kind of
psychological syndromes you can actually observe that are very
strange to an outsider, but fascinating, such as
having somebody who can produce language
but doesn't understand language anymore, or somebody who
behaves as if they are blind but
they're absolutely fine when it comes to their visual system.
And so when I graduated,
I worked as a Clinical Neuropsychologist
back in Bavaria and the Little Mountain Rehabilitation Hospital.
That was a nice experience.
So in winter, every night after work, I had to dig my car out.
So it was also a bit of a workout.
But that was pre-global
warming, properly kicked in.
While I was working there,
I again changed my mind because I got interested in certain
neuro-psychological symptoms to the point that I would like
to research more about it.
And I started to embark on a PhD.
After my PhD.
that was still back in Germany
I had the opportunity to work as a postdoc in
a French laboratory in Leon.
So I spent two years in Leon and I started to enjoy also the ease,
the relative ease with which you can move between countries and different cultures
and learn new languages as an academic.
So when my post came to an end,
I applied
to Durham University for a particular
research project that hit exactly
the head on the nail in terms my profile, my interest and what they wanted.
So I flew over there
had my interview and I got the job.
So I was there working for three years as a Senior
Research Associate, and at
that point I decided I need to change tack.
I need to be something a little bit more stable
because some of the problems you experience when you are
a young academic, is that you work on fixed term contracts.
So two years, three years max. Sometimes they are up for renewal,
sometimes you don't know, which means to you after
one and a half years into the post, you start already to think about what next.
And although this is exciting for a period of time.
As soon as you start or have a family, it becomes very, very difficult
because you obviously you may have children,
and you also may have a partner who wants to have a career.
And combining that and changing countries
or even regions
every two to three 3 years, at some point is really a problem.
And this is why I was looking for a permanent position.
I applied for a Lectureship in Hull and
since then, I'm here now.
I think one of the reasons academia is great is because it allows
you, it's one of the few jobs that actually you get
to do exactly what you're interested in and get paid to do it.
With my research,
you can be very flexible in that if you follow your interests.
And then, of course, teaching it, because one of the things
that we like to do, because we love our research, is to tell everyone about it.
And so it's a nice marriage of interest.
I think
it's one of those jobs that is
you have a lot I think you know
people think it's just you kind of sit around waiting to give a lecture.
But our jobs are very complicated.
We do five jobs in one. We do pastorall care,
we do the teaching, we do the research.
But the research requires grant writing and manuscript writing,
flying around the world, doing conferences.
So there's a lot to it
beyond that.
But, if that's what you love doing, it's a really great job.
And I genuinely, really love hearing from students
maybe two or three years down the line
when they get in touch to say what they're up to.
Students who have ended up working in the NHS
maybe have done further training and are working in
psychological well-being practitioners, or they're working in forensic settings
and sort of working with offenders, but supporting their mental health
and some really exciting, exciting jobs.
That you see that they've really been able to go ahead
and get the type of roles that they've wanted to do.
And you know, they give a bit of a personal update as well.
And it's, it's just really rewarding to see them.
Just going back to what Blake said about the highs as well, I think
from a student perspective, it really does come across in lectures when
you're in a lecture, that's the lecturer speciality,
the depth of knowledge and the interest and sort of the enthusiasm
really does come through in what you're learning.
And it does make the topic a lot more interesting and engaging. And
quite often you've got a lot more follow up questions
that obviously like require a meeting and you start discussing them for a long time.
But yeah, it definitely does come across in lectures when you're
with someone and their speciality, which is
probably quite rare.
I'm not sure that all subjects would have that.
So it's quite nice. And students keep us on our toes.
I got asked questions yesterday in a seminar and was like, I don't know the answer.
I'm going to have to get back to you. And that's really great.
And something just keeps my knowledge pushing forward as well.
So it's great.
But I also find in particular satisfying is the sort of performance element
when you are actually lecturing.
So it is so different from the online experience.
So I much prefer to be in a lecture theatre.
I can feel or see and observe.
I now have attention of the room, right?
And that's it's very, very satisfying, especially when you have to talk about
really complicated and complex materials.
It's also important that you are able to manage to convey the information.
Although the information is very, very complex, there is that
the other element that satisfies me is
seeing students grow and
and seeing their confidence grow
not just their knowledge about what they can do and also sometimes
pointing them towards opportunities they haven't been informed about.
So I had a couple of students now this is a few years ago
who were interested in neuroscience and neuropsychology.
They were thinking about doing the Clinical Doctorate as well,
but they didn't really get onto it.
But they were very, very good students.
And when we had these discussions, I said, look, have you actually thought
about an International Master's in neuroscience or in neural psychology?
There are some
at the University of Nijmegen, for example,
and there is a Neuroscience International Masters at the University of Tubingen.
I mean, I hadn't even thought about it, is it taught in German or Dutch?
No, it's taught in English!
It's an International Masters. Try it out
and it's cheaper overall. Right.
And they tried
it and they got onto it and they were impressed that they managed
because there was a really hard selection process for both masters,
they had to do an online exam and an interview in order to get onto it.
And these are the sort of moments where I think they got the confidence,
they went onto it and they actually got into this sort of really, really high end
type of master's courses.
And that is really deeply satisfying to me.
I think that's another way
we sort of benefit from having experts in their field is you've got that knowledge
and it's quite nice to have it passed down or to have opportunities raised to you
like the White Rose Scholarship.
I think it's really nice.
That's obviously a really good opportunity that we get
to apply for that.