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Meenakshi Shukla

Dr. Meenakshi Shukla is currently an Assistant Professor of Psychology at University of Allahabad, Prayagraj, India, with more than seven years of teaching and research experience. Her research interests involve exploring the relationship of emotions and emotional disorders with health. Her research delves into the intriguing phenomenon of cardiovascular emotional dampening, exploring how challenges in recognizing emotions relate to elevated blood pressure.

Dr. Shukla has completed her graduation, post-graduation, and PhD from Banaras Hindu University. She was awarded the Junior and Senior Research Fellowships by the University Grants Commission of India to pursue her PhD research. She has been the recipient of the Commonwealth Split-site (PhD) Scholarship in 2016-2017 by the Commonwealth Scholarship Commission (CSC) to carry out a part of her doctoral research work at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience, King’s College London, United Kingdom. She is a member of the CSC Alumni Advisory Panel.

Dr. Shukla’s Fulbright-Nehru project investigates the role of cardiovascular emotional dampening — a reduced ability to recognize emotions linked to elevated blood pressure — in shaping the cultural adaptation and health of first-generation Indian immigrants in the United States. It examines whether cardiovascular emotional dampening influences the choice of acculturation strategies (assimilation, integration, separation, or marginalization) among Indian immigrants and how these strategies impact their long-term cardiovascular health. The study also examines the “immigration paradox”, exploring why recent Indian immigrants often have better health than long-term residents despite greater stressors.

Shamini Warda

Dr. Shamini Warda holds a PhD in Cognitive Psychology from the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay. She earned a master’s degree in Cognitive Sciences from the Centre for Behavioural and Cognitive Sciences, University of Allahabad, and a bachelor’s degree in psychology from Mahatma Gandhi University, Kerala. Following PhD, she served as an Institute of Eminence Postdoctoral Fellow affiliated with the Department of Biosciences and Bioengineering at IIT Bombay. She has also been an Academic Research Visitor at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience at King’s College London.

Dr. Warda’s research interests lie at the intersection of cognition and action, with particular emphasis on human timing and time perception. Her PhD work investigated how various predictive processes influence the human perception of time. During her postdoctoral tenure at IIT Bombay, she integrated her knowledge of experimental psychology with motor control research and addressed questions pertaining to how timing affects whole-body movement and, conversely, how movement can influence temporal judgments. She has published articles in reputed international journals. She is a recipient of the Kuppuraj-Bishop study visit award from the Experimental Psychology Society.

As a Fulbright-Nehru Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the University of California, Berkeley, under the mentorship of Prof. Richard Ivry, Dr. Warda is seeking to advance the understanding of attentional influences on the internal clock model, examining how distinct sub-processes of attention modulate parameters of the internal clock and is investigating contributions of sub-cortical structures, particularly the cerebellum and basal ganglia.

Shilpa Ashok Pandit

Shilpa Pandit is an Associate Professor, at the School of Arts and Sciences, Ahmedabad University, Gujarat. Dr. Pandit’s research has focused on immersive experiences of Indian art and aesthetics; how affect generates well-being from philosophical and lived perspectives. As part of her enquiry, Dr. Pandit has worked with music and dance students, teachers and performing communities in some Indian cities. Dr. Pandit’s search for elements of immersive well-being in Indian music theory and practice are part of her studentship in both psychology and music. At Ahmedabad University, she teaches social, developmental as well as positive psychology, having completed her education in psychology from Delhi university and the University of Madras.

In her other avatars, Shilpa has co-founded a Bengaluru based NGO—Dreampath Foundation that works with adolescents for career exploration and counseling; worked with NGOs in the domains of health, nutrition and livelihoods. She worked closely on rural employment, as a UNDP Research Officer at MoRD, from 2014-2016. She was also a Chevening CRISP scholar, studying at University of Oxford, UK in 2018.

Through the Fulbright fellowship, Dr. Pandit is working closely with domain experts in music and Indian philosophers of well-being, to generate new insights on the relationship between, self, affect, art/aesthetics and well-being.