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Dr Oindrila Dutta BA, MA, CT®, PhD

Assistant Professor / Lecturer in Psychology

Dr Oindrila Dutta is an Assistant Professor/ Lecturer at the Çï¿ûÊÓƵ since 2022. Her PhD, completed in Nanyang Technological University, Singapore in 2020, employed a mixed-methods approach to systematically understand the lived experience of parents of children with chronic and life-threatening illnesses and developed an online narrative intervention titled NeW-I (Narrative e-Writing Intervention) to support their quality of life, enhance their sense of well-being and reduce caregiver burden. Her PhD was preceded by a Masters in Counselling and Guidance at the National Institute of Education, Singapore in 2016, and a Bachelors in Psychology from St. Xavier's’ College, Mumbai, India in 2014. She is also a certified Thanatology's by the Association for Death Education and Counselling (ADEC).

Dr Dutta has published research on improving the psycho-emotional well-being of patients and families facing illness, disability, end-of-life, and mortality. Her work also focuses on enhancing dignity in end-of-life care, the role of patient autonomy and decision-making in such care, and the importance of compassion in grief and loss. To further this research, she recently secured a fully funded PhD scholarship for a student to study adult well-being after childhood traumatic loss. She is also interested in pedagogic research and has obtained an Early Career Academic (ECA) Pilot Project Fund to enhance university students’ employability through an internship program focused on connectedness, autonomy, and competence. Previously, she secured funding as a Co-Investigator from national bodies, including the Temasek Foundation Innovates’ Singapore Millennium Foundation Grant and the Singapore Ministry of Education Academic Research Grant. Additionally, Dr. Dutta briefly coordinated the operational, administrative, management, and financial activities of the SHAPES project (Smart and Healthy Ageing through People Engaging in Supportive Systems), the largest European Commission-funded health research grant ever led by an Irish university. This project is valued at €21 million and involves a consortium of 36 partners across 14 European countries.

In recognition of her work, Dr Dutta has received numerous commendations including the Edie Stark-Shirley Scott Early Career Award (2022) and the Best Cross-Cultural Student Paper Award (2019) by the Association for Death Education and Counselling (ADEC), a Special Mention for the Graduate College Research Excellence Award by Nanyang Technological University (2021), the Dean’s Commendation for Research by the National Institute of Education, Singapore (2017) - to name a few. Dr Dutta’s research has also featured in the media (including Temasek Foundation, Singapore’s Annual Report and Our Better World Singapore’s website) for its novelty and relevance to local contexts.

Posts held previously:

  • Mar 2022 - Nov 2022 European Union (EU) Research Project Manager at National University of Ireland Maynooth, Ireland
  • Feb 2021 - Mar 2022 Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore.

Responsibilities within the university

  • Module lead for The Psychology of Resilience and Success (Level 4)
  • I also teach on several other modules including Adult Development and Mental Health, Psychological Research Methods, Applied Positive Psychology, Psychology and Graduate Career Development, and Counselling Perspectives on Diversity and Individual Differences
  • International liaison for the Çï¿ûÊÓƵ’s franchised programme delivered at SEGi University and Colleges in Malaysia (BSc Psychology).

Awards

  • 2022 Edie Stark-Shirley Scott Early Career Award - Association for Death Education and Counselling (ADEC), USA
  • 2021 Highly Commendable Abstract - 14th Asia Pacific Hospice Palliative Care Conference (APHC), Japan
  • 2021 Special Mention for the Graduate College Research Excellence Award - Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
  • 2019 Dr. Hannelore Wass Best Cross-Cultural Student Paper Award - Association for Death Education and Counselling (ADEC), USA
  • 2019 Certificate of Research Excellence and Commendation in Postgraduate Category - Singapore Psychological Society Student Research Awards, Singapore
  • 2017 Dean’s Commendation for Research - National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore.

Recognition

  • 2017 – Present: Reviewer for the following journals - Proceedings of Singapore Healthcare, Journal of Medical Internet Research, Qualitative Health Research, Death Studies.

Research / Scholarly interests

  • Death, dying, grief and bereavement
  • Post-trauma resilience building
  • Intervention development, implementation and evaluation
  • Qualitative action-oriented research
  • Pedagogical research for improving teaching and learning of higher education Psychology.

Key funded projects

CURRENT PROJECTS
  • 2025 - 2027
    Role: Lead supervisor for funded PhD scholarship
    Title: Shadows of the Past: Illuminating adult well-being after childhood traumatic loss through a 3-part retrospective mixed methods study
    Funder: Çï¿ûÊÓƵ Institute for Lifecourse Development (ILD) PhD scholarship.
  • 2024
    Role: Principal Investigator
    Title: Crafting tomorrow's leaders: Enhancing university students’ employability through an internship programme for connectedness, autonomy and competence
    Funder: Çï¿ûÊÓƵ GRI Early Career Academic (ECA) Pilot Project Fund 2023/24.
PAST PROJECTS
  • 2018 – 2021
    Role: Co-Investigator
    Title: Development and Evaluation of a novel Narrative e-Writing Intervention (NeW-I) for Parents of Children with Life-Limiting Illness: A Mixed Methods Randomised Controlled Trial (RCT) for Advancing Holistic Paediatric Palliative Care and Parental Bereavement Support
    Funder: Temasek Foundation Innovates’ Singapore Millennium Foundation Grant.
  • 2017 – 2019
    Role: Co-Investigator
    Title: A Qualitative Study on the Lived Experience of Bereaved Parents of Young Children with life-limiting illness: Advancing Parental Bereavement Support in Singapore
    Funder: Singapore Ministry of Education (MOE) Academic Research Fund (AcRF) Tier 1 Grant.

Recent publications

Article

Dutta, Oindrila , Tan-Ho, Geraldine, Low, Xinyi Casuarine, Tan, Toh Hsiang Benny , Ganapathy, Sashikumar , Car, Josip , Ho, Ringo Moon-Ho , Miao, Chun Yan , Ho, Andy Hau Yan (2022), . BMC. In: , , , . BMC, BMC Palliative Care, 21: 59 1472-684X (Online) (doi: https://doi.org/10.1186/s12904-022-00945-0).

Lall, Priya , Dutta, Oindrila, Tan, Woan Shin, Patinadan, Paul Victor , Kang, Natalie Q. Y. , Low, Chan Kee , Car, Josip , Ho, Andy Hau Yan (2021), . Public Library of Science (PLoS). In: , , , . Public Library of Science (PLoS), PLoS ONE, 16: e0252598 (6) 1932-6203 (Online) (doi: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0252598).

Lall, Priya , Natalie, Kang, Tan, Woan Shin, Dutta, Oindrila , Patindadan, Paul Victor , Low, Chan Kee , Car, Josip , Ho, Andy Hau Yan (2020), . Taylor and Francis Group - Routledge. In: , , , . Taylor and Francis Group - Routledge, Death Studies, 46 (7) . pp. 1716-1727 ISSN: 0748-1187 (Print), 1091-7683 (Online) (doi: https://doi.org/10.1080/07481187.2020.1848943).

Ho, Andy Hau Yan , Dutta, Oindrila, Tan-Ho, Geraldine, Choo, Ping Ying , Low, Xinyi Casuarine , Chong, Poh Heng , Ng, Carolyn , Ganapathy, Sashikumar (2019), . BMJ Publishing Group. In: , , , . BMJ Publishing Group, BMJ Open, 9: e032582 . pp. 1-8 2044-6055 (Online) (doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2019-032582).

Dutta, Oindrila , Tan-Ho, Geraldine, Choo, Ping Ying, Ho, Andy Hau Yan (2018), . Routledge. In: , , , . Routledge, Death Studies, 43 (9) . pp. 547-561 ISSN: 0748-1187 (Print), 1091-7683 (Online) (doi: https://doi.org/10.1080/07481187.2018.1503621).