We’re profiling nominees in the lead up to the 2014 Macquarie University Research Excellence Awards on Thursday 2 October.

This week meet Dr Celia Harris from the Department of Cognitive Science who is a nominee for an Early Career Researcher of the Year – Social Science, Business and Humanities Award.

How long have you been a researcher at Macquarie?
I completed my PhD at Macquarie and graduated in 2010. I spent some time at the Centre of Autobiographical Memory Research at Aarhus University in Denmark, before returning to Macquarie in 2012.

I was drawn to research because…
I love to spend my time learning more about the way that people are, the way the world works, and working out how different concepts fits together. It seems like such a privilege to do this for a living!

What would be an ‘elevator pitch’ of your research area?
I’m interested in the way that people remember events from their lives, particularly in a social context, and how remembering with others is different from remembering alone. My research looks at the way that remembering with others might shape our memories and help us to remember the past in a particular way. I’m particularly interested in couples and families, the role that memory plays in relationships, how couples might cue and facilitate each other’s’ memories, and whether benefits of shared remembering are particularly important for those experiencing memory decline.

In layman’s terms, what is the wider impact of your research?
One application of my work is to understand how people might best support each other as memory starts to fail. If we can identify the kinds of strategies that people naturally use to cue memory and to compensate for memory difficulties, we might be able to train family members and carers to better support those experiencing memory decline and dementia. My research also helps to broaden psychological approaches to studying memory, and emphasises the importance of function and context in understanding how memory works in day-to-day life.

Who is/was your biggest research mentor?
One big inspiration for my research comes from my own family. I come from a large family, and I have both elderly grandmothers and a young daughter. So I’m fascinated by the power that memory has to create bonds between people and to link the generations.

My favourite and/or most proud research moment was when…
I really love meeting and interviewing older couples. It has been such an eye opening experience for me to hear people’s stories. Every person you meet is different in their own way, and the range of experiences that people have had is just extraordinary. You discover that the quiet older gentleman you are having a cup of tea with escaped from a prisoner of war camp in World War 2, or hear a couple talk about losing a child to an illness and how the experience has shaped their lives. Many of my participants have told me how much they enjoy the experience of being involved in my research, to have the chance to sit and spend time telling their stories. It makes me realise how important it is to listen, and the truly fascinating stories that even the most ‘ordinary’ people have to tell.

Read more about Dr Harris’ work on Yahoo Health, Business Insider Australia and Radio National.