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IWD2025: An Interview with Dr. Melina Kyranides

  • May 22
  • 2 min read

Next up in our IWD series is Dr. Melina Nicole Kyranides! She is currently an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of Cyprus, and was previously based at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland.


Melina's work focuses on individual and environmental factors associated with the development of maladaptive traits and behaviours in young people, primarily psychopathic traits. She is also a licensed School Psychologist. The ultimate goal of her work is to inform prevention and treatment efforts for children with behavioural problems and callous-unemotional traits.


Her university webpage can be viewed here: https://www.ucy.ac.cy/directory/en/profile/mkyran01



What inspired you to pursue a career in your specific field of research?


I am an applied School/Educational Psychologist and so when I got my license to practice, I had the opportunity to work with youth who displayed a range of behavioural problems and were referred to social services by the courts to complete their community service. I found this population especially interesting to work with because they were challenging but also due to the impact they had, not only affecting their own progression/development but also others in their immediate environment (peers, family members, community). At the time I had to choose a topic for my PhD so this experience I believe fueled my research interest. While I have widened my research interests, I think I always come back to this group/population.


How do you envision the future of your field, and what role do you hope to play in it?


I am hoping to have an impact and help the applied and research field move forward. As an applied psychologist, I think the most rewarding feeling would be to know that some of my work, even just one project, managed to help individuals by enhancing their lives and reducing the distress they were experiencing. As my research focuses primarily on individuals with behavioral and emotional difficulties, some of them are resistant to treatment efforts and so helping breakdown how we can enhance interventions and make them more effective, or better yet prevent these problems from developing, would be an area I hope to be a part of.


What advice would you give to someone just starting out in your field, especially young women aspiring to enter the research community?


Academia is a competitive field of work and academics are going to inevitably encounter setbacks. So you need to be resilient and learn from the setbacks. It is definitely a challenging profession so I would advise young individuals thinking to pursue a career in academia to try and create an environment and network of people that supports and cheers you on, as much as this is possible. While things are much better for women now in academia, I do think there is still room for improvement. I think women can be great academics, but we are often torn in having to work out a work-life balance. If you are a young woman who likes teaching and research, setting up projects, collecting data, running analysis and interpreting the data, writing up the findings, then I would strongly advise you to go for it because while it can be challenging at times it is also very rewarding.



You can learn more about International Women's Day here: https://internationalwomensday.com/


Or visit their X/Twitter: https://x.com/womensday

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