This blog is about the psychology work I’m involved with
here in Ecuador. It’s a not a comprehensive review of psychology in the
country. Although I hope it will provide some exposure to what’s going on here and
help to promote Ecuadorian psychology in general. My other motive is to promote
interaction with psychologists and researchers, those here in Ecuador or in
other countries.
I’m British, what am I doing in Ecuador? Well back in 2008 I
was research fellow at the University of Sheffield in the UK. In that year my
supervisor had just left to return to the USA, so there was a potential opening
for a tenured position. In fact, it had my name on it. Unfortunately, at about
the same time, the world financial markets started to crash, the University decided
it was time to cut-back on expenditure. No job for me.
I decided to try a new strategy: Move to Ecuador. At first I
taught English as it’s the easiest work to find as foreigner. Pretty soon I had
a couple of courses of psychology teaching and some academic writing classes at
Universidad San Francisco de Quito, reputed the best university in the country.
Two years of that and I had a new plan. Move to Japan and teach there instead.
Japan is a great country, unfortunately its university
system is awful. I taught at Chuo University in Tokyo for two years and even managed,
despite the University, to do some research. In the meantime, my former
University in Ecuador offered me a professorship. So I’m back in Quito. Ecuador
is a great country, and I’m teaching at a university that values research. In fact, I've got several research projects moving since my return, 3 months ago. If you have any research ideas, or you have any questions, get in touch.
