When Science Meets Humanity: A Journey Through Different Worlds of Thinking
As I reflect on my academic journey, I realise that my path has taken me across very different worlds — from arts and humanities to social sciences and now into cognitive neuroscience. Each of these fields has shaped my way of thinking, working, and being, and as I stand at this intersection, I feel both challenged and incredibly fortunate.
From Arts and Humanities to Social Science: Understanding People Through Stories and Society
My academic roots lie in the arts and humanities, where I learned to see the world through stories, cultures, and histories. I was trained to analyze meaning, context, and human experience, focusing on how people express themselves through language, literature, and culture.
Later, in my postgraduate studies in social science, I shifted towards understanding how individuals and societies interact, diving into human behavior, education, and social structures. Here, I began to think critically about research methods, exploring how to study people’s lives, thoughts, and experiences through qualitative and mixed methods.
Stepping into Science: Neuroscience as a New Challenge
Now, as I undertake a degree in cognitive neuroscience and psycholinguistics, I find myself challenged in ways I never expected. Neuroscience is, as I often say to myself, a hard-core science — a field that demands precision, objectivity, and a deep understanding of biological processes.
Learning how to collect and analyze data — not just through interviews or surveys but through EEG, fMRI, and other complex experiments — has stretched my brain to new limits. I had to relearn how to approach questions, how to think in terms of hypotheses, variables, and neural mechanisms. I’ve had to become comfortable with statistics, coding, and rigorous experimental design — things that once felt distant from my humanities and social science background.
The Beauty of Bridging Disciplines: Why I Feel Grateful
Although this transition has been difficult, it has also been deeply rewarding. I feel lucky to have experienced different ways of thinking and doing:
• From arts and humanities, I gained the ability to see the richness of human experience, to appreciate culture, identity, and meaning.
• From social science, I learned to observe, analyze, and understand people within society, and to design research that reflects real-world complexities.
• From neuroscience, I’ve gained tools to explore the brain’s inner workings, and to ask hard scientific questions about how we think, learn, and communicate.
Now, I am confident in navigating these different realms. I see how they complement and strengthen one another, and I aspire to combine them all to become a stronger, more well-rounded researcher and educator.
What I have Learned About Thinking and Researching Differently
One of the most important lessons from this journey is that every discipline trains your mind in a different way:
• Arts and humanities teach you to think critically, ask deep questions, and reflect on human meaning.
• Social sciences guide you to observe patterns, understand human behavior, and design flexible research that captures complexity.
• Sciences, like neuroscience, require you to be precise, analytical, and systematic, asking “how” things work at the most fundamental levels.
Learning to think and work in all these ways has transformed how I approach research. I now see how scientific data can benefit from human stories, and how human experience can be better understood when grounded in scientific knowledge.
Becoming More Open-Minded: Understanding People from Different Backgrounds
This interdisciplinary journey has not only shaped me as a researcher — it has also shaped me as a person. Working across different fields has helped me understand people from different backgrounds, whether they are scientists, educators, students, or community members.
I have learned to appreciate different ways of thinking, and this has greatly enhanced my communication skills. Whether I’m discussing complex neural processes with scientists, or talking about cultural experiences with students, I can bridge the gap between different worlds.
Final Reflections: A Path That Enriches Teaching and Research
Looking back, I feel grateful that I didn’t stay in one narrow path. Taking myself across arts, social science, and neuroscience has made me a more open, adaptable, and reflective person.
As a teacher, I now understand the importance of combining empathy and analytical thinking — of seeing the person behind the data, and the brain behind the behavior. As a researcher, I see how asking the right questions requires both scientific rigor and human understanding.
In the end, when science meets humanity, we are able to see people in their full richness — as minds, bodies, and souls. And that, I believe, is what education and research should aim for.
Takeaway Message
If you are also navigating between different fields or feeling challenged by stepping into something new, keep going. Growth often happens when we stretch ourselves in uncomfortable ways. In the end, you will emerge with a broader mind, a deeper understanding of people, and a richer perspective to share with the world.
