Nikita Ghodke, B.A. | Open Science, et al.  

Hello! My name is Nikita घोडके (Gho-d-ke) and my pronouns are she/her/ella. I am a queer-disabled researcher from Bangalore, India. I completed my Bachelor's in Psychology, English Literature, and Journalism (2021) from Jain University, India. I am currently a Research Assistant at New York University & Cambridge University where I am working remotely. I am also a Research Assistant at Ashoka University and a Research Contributor at ManyBabies Consortium. I am an aspiring Pediatric Speech-Language Pathologist and a Developmental Cognitive Neuroscientist.

I previously worked during the summer as a Research Assistant at Harvard University & University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) in 2022 and was a research intern at the Indian Institute of Technology, Gandhinagar. 

You can also read more about me and my background by clicking here.

Coming to my research interests, I am interested in investigating the relationship between socioeconomic inequality/poverty and its influence on children's cognitive and brain development, particularly, in language development, memory, and executive functions. My interests align with using neuroscience to make better educational outcomes and promote healthy development in infants & toddlers specifically from the LMICs and underrepresented groups. You can read more about my research experiences and talks/presentations. 

I identify as a disabled queer student in academia with a diagnosis of Arthritis and Borderline Personality Disorder. 

I believe and work actively in advocating awareness about open science, gender & sexuality, disability, and diversity. I also serve as a committee member on the Inclusive, Diversity, Equity, Access (IDEA) committee in the Society for The Improvement of Psychological Sciences (SIPS), ManyBabies. Additionally, I compiled a list of resources for the underrepresented population. One such list can be found here. 

I am a proud co-founder of the open science initiative, #Dev-ersity in academia (DIA). And, I am the founder of another open science initiative, Project USPAS (Underrepresented Students of Psychology & Allied Sciences). These initiatives are aimed at bridging together opportunities and accessing resources around the Psychological & allied sciences as well as underrepresented researchers around the globe, especially those from developing nations.

I update a section on my website of the different acceptance and a rejections list of a variety of opportunities I have applied to in academia. (why, do I do that? celebrate small wins and transparency of the process). Apart from academics, I am also a writer and photographer by hobby and occasionally a singer (well, a few know about it). When I am not working or actively scrolling through Twitter, I am most of the time binge-watching TV series and movies. (Currently binging the Marvel Cinematic Universe & Grey's Anatomy).

I love capturing memories of non-academic & academic milestones of my life and updating all of those on my memories page and my sci-comm Instagram page. Feel free to glance through it, it's a virtual mini-museum of what some of the tiny good moments of my life are and have been.

P.S Feel free to reach out to me via Email/Twitter with any questions, potential collaborations or just to chit-chat about any of the above :). I love talking to and helping fellow international students in navigating academia to the best of my capacity. In the spirit of navigating and understanding the academic community on Twitter, I also have slides/materials made for International students to form a base for exploring the academic Twitter community and or navigating it. 

I have been helping many International students (not counting - more than 70+) that I met on Twitter & LinkedIn with the process of applying to RA positions and updating the resources page with the same. All the resources created come from my experience with applications and I am no expert in this.