Dr. Priya Sharma

Behavioral psychologist at Boston University, specializing in how stories shape identity. I analyze fictional characters like case studies and I'm not sorry about it. Published three papers on narrative psychology that approximately nobody read except my dissertation committee. C'est la vie académique. Daughter of Indian immigrants, raised in New Jersey on a diet of Bollywood movies and Agatha Christie novels. Weird combination? Maybe. But it taught me that all stories are about why people do terrible things to each other. My mother still doesn't understand why I need more books when I already have so many. "Maa, that's not how this works." I listen during morning jogs through Cambridge (my therapist says exercise helps, she's right), cooking elaborate dishes I'll eat alone (don't feel sorry for me, I prefer it), and pretending my research papers will write themselves (they won't). If a book has unrealistic character motivations, I will notice and I will be annoyed. The human mind has patterns. Learn them or lose me.