Biography

Dr Matsungshila Pongener (she/her/hers) is an assistant professor at the Jindal School of Psychology & Counselling, O. P. Jindal Global University, India. She holds a PhD in Health and Medical Psychology from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Hyderabad, India. Her broad research area is psycho-oncology, culture and health, women’s health, and health behaviours. For her doctoral research, she explored the lay perspectives of cervical cancer among men and women within an indigenous setting, aiming to inform future public health efforts in cervical cancer screening. More specifically, her work intersects with Public Health and Medical Anthropology, lending an interdisciplinary lens to exploring the complex interplay of illness beliefs and culture in preventive behaviours.

Dr Pongener adopts qualitative research methods such as interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) and reflexive thematic analysis, and incorporates multiple data collection methods such as body mapping, drawings, and images to provide culturally rich qualitative data. Given her background in research methods, she has organised workshops on health research for university students and was invited as a guest lecturer to deliver a lecture on IPA by Curtin University Dubai in 2025. She has presented her scholarly works at leading conferences organised by the International Psycho-oncology Society, Asia Pacific Psycho-oncology Network, and the National Academy of Psychology. Further, her academic writings have been published as book chapters and articles in peer-reviewed journals. She has also actively contributed to the scholarly community through peer reviewing for major journals. 

Dr Pongener is firmly committed to academic excellence and received the SC/ST Medal in the M.Sc. Health Psychology examination (5-year Integrated; 2015), University of Hyderabad, India. She loves curating pop culture memes related to psychology and dedicates her leisure time to community outreach programs focusing on teens and young adults to support their mental well-being.