Profile

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Madeleine Pownall

Looking forward to chatting all things science in March! 👩‍🔬🌍

My CV

  • Education:

    I went to Guiseley High School in Leeds before moving to the University of Lincoln to study a Psychology degree. Now I’m back in my hometown at the University of Leeds.

  • Qualifications:

    My A-levels were German, English Literature, and Psychology. I actually did the worst in Psychology… but that didn’t stop me studying it at University.

  • Work History:

    I have worked at an Indian restaurant, a Costa Coffee, and as a personal carer for a little girl with a brain injury.

  • Current Job:

    Postgraduate Researcher and Teaching Assistant in Psychology

  • About Me:

    I am a social psychologist and I study the different ways that people make judgements about other people. I am particularly interested in how a person’s gender (being male or female) changes these social interactions.

  • Read more

    My name is Maddi and I live in sunny Leeds with my partner, Hugh. I grew up in Leeds but moved down to Lincoln (near Nottingham) for a few years to study Psychology. I’m now back home in Yorkshire working towards a PhD and teaching at the University of Leeds.

    I am a big fan of cooking, eating, and watching foodie programmes (Can you spot a theme? 👩‍🍳🥘🍽️🍫)

    I have a twin brother and a younger sister. 👨‍👩‍👧

    I love country music and hope to one day travel to Nashville, USA, to see a proper country music festival 🤠

    My pronouns are she/her.

  • Read more

    As well as researching, I also teach Psychology students, work on different Psychology committees and organisations, and run teaching events. The photo below is from a teaching event I ran last week – sometimes pens and paper can be boring, so I brought in some play-dough and asked other lecturers to make models and play together! It can be a lot of fun.

     

  • My Typical Day:

    The best part of my job is that no two days are the same! Some days I may be teaching, writing, researching, or attending a meeting somewhere exotic. One thing that definitely happens, without fail, is listening to my beloved country music playlist on the bus every morning. After that, each day is a mystery!

  • Read more

    My job is very flexible, which means I sometimes find myself working in unconventional “offices” for the day. My favourite spot to write articles is my local arts coffee shop ☕️ (photo below). The owner is lovely and always reminds me to take breaks when I’ve been there all morning!

    Writing is a large part of my job (no one can know about the stuff I research if I don’t write it down for someone to read, after all!) so I spend a lot of time with my laptop creating articles, blog posts, or tweets for other people to learn about.

  • What I'd do with the prize money:

    I’d like to develop new ways of engaging a wide range of people with psychology, showing that there is more to psychology than “reading people’s minds”. 🧠

  • My Interview

    • How would you describe yourself in 3 words?

      Fascinated foodie feminist

      What did you want to be after you left school?

      A Blue Peter presenter

      Were you ever in trouble at school?

      Occasionally. I was easily distracted and had a short attention span...

      Who is your favourite singer or band?

      Old Dominion! (They're a small-town country band - check them out on YouTube!)

      What's your favourite food?

      Chocolate, chocolate, chocolate

      If you had 3 wishes for yourself what would they be? - be honest!

      Be good, be kind, be honest

      Tell us a joke.

      A man walked into a library and asked the librarian for a book on turtles. "Hard back?" the librarian replied. "Yes" said the man, "with a little head".

Questions answered by Madeleine

View all Madeleine's answered questions