About Martha

Psychologist. Cognitive anthropologist. Curious about people.

I grew up in the countryside and went to what was, objectively, the worst school in the county. It closed the year I left. I was Head Girl, despite a petition against me getting the job. I’m still fairly Marmite and honest to a fault.

A few exceptional teachers made a lasting difference. My RE teacher ran an after-school class when the school dropped GCSE Religious Studies, took a small group of us to a mandir in London, and showed us films that prompted complaints from parents. My English teacher somehow taught a class of 60, ranging from A* to E, and still managed to challenge me. Later, studying the International Baccalaureate at a local state college alongside brilliant scholarship students from around the world made my own world feel much smaller - and sparked my interest in anthropology.

I went on to study Human Sciences at Sussex because I had no desire to narrow things down. Philosophy, biology, linguistics, psychology and anthropology were equally exciting and it bothers me that broad programmes continue to be cut. Anthropology was my hardest subject and genetics my strongest, so naturally I chose to pursue anthropology…

After teaching English in Spain, Vietnam, and the UK, I self-funded a Master’s in Cognitive and Evolutionary Anthropology at Oxford, followed by an ESRC–St Cross scholarship for my doctorate in anthropology. At Oxford, I became increasingly interested in combining anthropology’s big questions with quantitative methods and evolutionary theory, using modern populations as my field sites. Football fans became my first major research world.

Since then, my work has taken me into prisons, festivals, saunas, psychedelic research and communities around the world, but the themes have remained largely unchanged: how people form powerful bonds, how those bonds shape behaviour and health, and how intense social experiences can change us.

I’m now an Associate Professor of Psychology at the University of Greenwich, a Research Affiliate at the University of Oxford, leader of the Changing Lives Lab and founder of Martha Newson Studio.

Outside work, I’ve practised yoga for more than 20 years, walk my dogs every day, and care a great deal about good food.