Dr. Jhotisha Mugon
Dr. Jhotisha Mugon is an Assistant Teaching Professor in the Department of Psychology at UVic. As a teaching professor, she spends most of her time teaching undergraduate courses in the mind and brain stream and in the social stream. However, she is interested in research on emotion regulation, attitudes and mechanisms of action of psychedelics, and supporting students’ academic self-regulation.
1. What inspired you to become a psychologist?
I became interested in psychology when I took a course in high school. It fascinated me and it was one of my easier topics, something that just clicked. I was actually discouraged from pursuing psychology in undergrad, because of job prospects but I persisted and I found psychology to be very insightful.
During my undergraduate career, I wanted to become an educational psychologist— advising students on educational paths. However, towards the end of my undergrad, I became interested in cognitive neuroscience – in how cognition and our brain coexist and influence each other. I just wanted to keep learning about the brain and behaviour so, I approached my Honour’s supervisor to ask if I could continue studying under his supervision and luckily for me, he agreed.
2. What was the educational pathway you took to become a psychologist?
I did all my studies at the University of Waterloo in Ontario, including my Bachelor’s, Master’s, and PhD. For my Master’s, I took a social neuroscience perspective to investigate how boredom prone individuals attempt to regulate their boredom by using different self-regulatory strategies. During my PhD, I extended my work on boredom to explore the different causes and correlates of the emotion. I also got to work on a pretty neat project looking at the genetic correlates of self-regulation.
3. Was there anyone who was particularly influential to you during your studies?
I spent nine years with my graduate supervisor (Dr. James Danckert, University of Waterloo) so I have to give him a lot of credit. I did my Honours thesis with him and then continued with my Master’s and PhD under his supervision. Not only did he contribute to the growth of my academic skills, but he encouraged me to seek other opportunities beyond academic research – to expand on my skills set. So, he got me thinking about the types of skills that would translate to different jobs. Then, at the beginning of my PhD, I got a job as a graduate educational developer at the Centre for Teaching Excellence at the University of Waterloo. My main responsibility was to help graduate students advance their university teaching skills. My then work supervisor, Dr. Svitlana Tabara-Gordon is an educational developer, and she inspired me to seek out teaching roles. So, I have to credit her for inspiring me to become a teaching professor. My mum also helped me immensely – both financially and emotionally. She always had something positive and encouraging to say when I hit a hurdle. I definitely couldn’t have done it without her!
4. What does a typical workday look like for Dr. Mugon?
I spend my morning answering emails and then I dedicate a good portion of my time for lesson planning. I still go over my lessons even if I’ve taught them many times before to make sure there’s up-to-date research. Then of course, I go teach my classes and in between lesson planning and teaching, there is a good smattering of student or departmental meetings or events that I attend.
During this Fall term, I am on sabbatical, and I am spending a good chunk of my time analyzing data from a study that investigates how best to support students’ self-regulation skills as they transition to university. I also had the opportunity to attend some conferences for my own professional development.
5. How do you maintain your work-life balance?
Oh, that’s a tough one. As a junior faculty, I'm still working on this. One of the things I’ve started doing this year is trying to book weekends off and not doing any work - sometimes it’s easy to do so but at other times I’ve struggled. Whenever I can, I take the weekend off and use that time to get together with my family and spend time with them, whether it's doing groceries, playing board games, or going on long walks together. I am hoping to continue doing that next term.
6. What inspired you to pursue a teaching stream in psychology?
During my graduate career, I enjoyed learning about different research, but I also realized that I did not want to become a researcher. That’s why my supervisor encouraged me to expand my skills set. Then when I worked as a graduate educational developer, Dr. Tabara-Gordon played a huge role in teaching me the skills I needed to become an instructor and that there are many academic roles that don't involve research. She encouraged me to try teaching as a career. So, in Winter 2018, I taught my first undergraduate course in social psychology and while I was super nervous at the beginning of the term, that course made me realize, “I think I can do this. I can become an instructor.” I also realized that I loved getting students curious about psychology, watching their faces light up as they connected concepts to their lives, and seeing those 'aha' moments when they learned something surprising. This was a very powerful, empowering experience and it helped me realize that I found my dream job.
7. Could you describe your research interests?
My past research broadly encompasses using the emotion of boredom as a signal to regulate ourselves. When you’re bored, this emotion is telling you that you have disengaged from your environment, and you need to re-engage.
Ever since starting at UVic, I started doing research in the scholarship of teaching and learning. I had previously mentioned the ongoing study that I have looking at students’ academic self-regulation skills and how we can best support students transition into university. This study takes place in my first-year Intro Psych course where through a series of metacognitive activities, we get students to learn about their own study strategies and, the association between study strategies, memory and course performance. We also ask students to reflect on strategies and habits that’s working well for them and those that are not working well for them. Through this work, I hope to get students to take some time to introspect and feel empowered to make changes that will set them up for success in future academic terms.
As a teaching professor, I do not supervise any graduate students. However, I do supervise undergraduate students for their Honours thesis. At the moment, my Honours student is investigating attitudes towards different recreational drug categories and harm reduction practices associated with each category. This line of research feeds into my own research interest on the attitudes and mechanisms of action of drugs.
8. With your research background in cognitive neuroscience, are there any tips you can share to students who might be sitting in lectures fighting boredom to increase their engagement in their studies?
Some of these tips are going to be hard and students might not like hearing this. My first tip would be to put your phone away. Our phones are major distractors and the moment we disengage our attention from the class to look at our phone, it’s hard to re-engage it. Instead try to engage with the course content by relating it to your own life experiences. Alternatively, think of a creative way of remembering the information - a jingle or funny phrase that’ll help you solidify the course content in your memory.
My second tip is to write out your notes. Lots of students take their notes on a laptop and accessibility needs aside, many students want to capture everything that their instructor is saying. Students are motivated to not miss out and erroneously believe that they have to write everything down. That can get quite boring. Instead, try to take notes by focusing on the key points in the lecture and summarizing what the instructor said. Put an asterisk next to content that is unclear to you – that way you’ll know to review this content after class or to ask the instructor for an explanation. By summarizing what is being said in class, you’re reframing the content in your own words and this helps commit the knowledge you’re learning into memory. There’s no time to be bored this way.
Last but not least, if and when instructors give you the opportunity to discuss something in class or to do an activity in pairs/ groups, take a chance and talk to your fellow students. It is fairly anxiety-inducing if you’re in a large classroom setting, and you don’t know anyone. But I encourage you to take a leap and you never know, you might make a really good friend or end up having an engaging discussion about the topic. Part of having discussions is to encourage a sense of belonging in class and to give students the opportunity to connect with one another. Research also shows that students remember content better when they discuss it with their peers. They remember the content better because 1) they associate the discussion with their peers and that acts as an additional memory cue and 2) when they engage in discussions, they often learn a different perspective or a cool story that they did not know before and that helps them retain the information.
9. Where do you think the future of your field is headed?
Since starting at UVic, I’ve been interested in the mechanism of action of different drugs, particularly psychedelics and how they can help people process prior events and traumas. I am really interested in what is actually happening at the cellular and systems level. There is already a good amount of research on this topic and I think newer research is going to continue to shed light onto exactly how these drugs are working, what their interactions are with the gut microbiome and the potential for new drug therapies.
As for teaching, the lens we are using to teach is undergoing a lot of change. The way AI is being incorporated in education holds infinite possibilities for fostering collaboration and thinking. There are lots of policies and ethical aspects that academic institutions need to work through first but once that is done, GenAI has a huge potential to help instructors create an immersive learning environment for their students. It’ll give instructors an opportunity to engage students in more hands-on learning and keep them continuously engaged in the material.
10. What advice do you have for students interested in pursuing a similar path to yourself?
If you’re in undergrad, talk to your professors and ask them how you can get involved in research or in the community. Having such experiences really sets you apart for graduate school applications. You can also ask your professors about their education paths because even if their path may seem straightforward, it’s not always that way.
Graduate students who are interested in teaching should look for professional development opportunities through the UVic LTSI (Learning and Teaching Support and Innovation) unit. They have some wonderful programs that are intended to get you started on teaching. I would encourage graduate students to be open to not just teaching a course, but other opportunities like facilitating a workshop on campus. This would still introduce you to the world of teaching and presenting. For Psychology graduate students, I co-chair a teaching community of practice specifically for graduate students with the goal of supporting them in their pursuits of teaching skills and teaching related careers.
Five fun facts about Dr. Mugon:
What are your hobbies?
I like Pilates, and I try to attend classes once or twice a week. And much like other people in Victoria, I love long walks. I also like to just sit by a body of water and hear the calming waves.
Any media you’ve enjoyed lately- anything from books, music, podcast, to films!
I’m always late on catching up with TV shows and movies but lately, I’ve been watching the show Brooklyn 99. I also binge watched Wednesday Addams and I found that really funny!
Do you have a dream travel destination?
I just came back from Italy and Greece and they were on the top of my list for a while. I would like to continue exploring around Europe and visit places like Prague, Austria and drive through the Alps.
What’s your favourite type of weather?
I did most of my schooling in Ontario so I miss the snow—I think a snowy winter is absolutely beautiful… as long as you’re ready for it!
Do you have a favourite winter themed activity?
I tried curling when I was in Ontario and I really loved it. I thought I wouldn’t enjoy it when I first watched the sport and when I tried it, I fell on my back many times, but it was so much fun. I also like trekking through snow in my tall winter boots.
