Jo Watson

Jo Watson is a Research Fellow and Casual Teaching staff member in the School of Psychological Science at The University of Western Australia, currently completing her PhD under Dr Tim Kurz and Dr Lynden Miles. Her research is supported by The Wellcome Trust funded ROH-Indies project, an international interdisciplinary initiative investigating human-street dog relations in India to address rabies as a public health crisis.

Watson's research spans Environmental Psychology and Social Psychology with concentrated expertise in Human-Animal Relations, Public Health, and Behavior Change. She examines identity and morality dynamics within environmental contexts, developing practical interventions for societal transformation while addressing complex issues like rabies prevention through interdisciplinary frameworks.

Her forthcoming 2025 chapter in the Handbook of Environmental Psychology analyzes identity's role in environmental behavior, reflecting her ROH-Indies project focus on human-street dog dynamics in India. This work demonstrates consistent integration of theoretical identity frameworks with urgent public health applications.

Scientific Awards: None documented in available materials.

As a PhD candidate, Watson does not supervise students but serves as lead researcher for ROH-Indies' large-scale India study. Her prior 15-year career in communications research involved designing government and private-sector behavior change programs, directly informing her current academic methodology.

Watson operates within the ROH-Indies international consortium, collaborating across disciplinary boundaries using One Health approaches to tackle India's rabies challenges through human-animal relationship analysis.