Rate My Professor Marea Colombo

Dr. Marea Colombo serves as a Senior Teaching Fellow in the Department of Psychology within the Sciences Division at the University of Otago. Holding a Bachelor of Arts with Honours from Middlebury College and a Doctor of Philosophy from the University of Otago, she completed her doctorate in 2018. Her PhD research delved into theory of mind, investigating the extent to which gender acts as a motivating factor in perspective-taking. Through a series of experiments using cartoon depictions of males and females, she found that participants were more inclined to consider the perspectives of those of the opposite gender when inferring what others see, feel, or think. This work contributes to understanding social cognitive processes influenced by gender dynamics.

In her current role, Dr. Colombo is the Pacific Student Adviser for the Department of Psychology, dedicated to promoting the academic success of Pacific students. She began her career at the University of Otago at the Pacific Islands Centre and continues to collaborate closely with both Māori and Pacific communities. She coordinates and teaches the course PSYC 329: Cultural Psychology, which explores psychological phenomena across cultures. Her research interests center on supporting marginalized groups and drawing insights from indigenous knowledge systems. Notable publications include co-authorship on "Look into my eyes: a 'faceless' avatar interviewer lowers reporting threshold for adult eyewitnesses," published in Memory & Cognition in 2023 with colleagues Che-Wei Hsu, Julien Gross, and Harlene Hayne; and "Emotional content of the event but not mood influences false memory," appearing in Applied Cognitive Psychology in 2021 alongside Weiwei Zhang, Georgia Cowan, Julien Gross, and Harlene Hayne. These studies examine factors affecting eyewitness reporting and memory distortions. Dr. Colombo's contributions extend internationally through her receipt of the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi-New Zealand Centre (IITD-NZC) Fellowship in 2024, making her the first recipient from the University of Otago and the youngest awardee at age 32. During her fellowship at IIT Delhi, she built relationships with students at the Centre Against Caste Inequity, conducting workshops on building confidence and challenging the notion of the 'Perfect Student' for Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribal students. She highlighted similarities between their challenges and those faced by indigenous students at Otago, fostering cross-cultural dialogue on equity in education.