Karenna Malavanti, Ph.D.

Education

Ph.D., Experimental Psychology, Baylor University, 2014

M.A., Psychology, Baylor University, 2012

B.S., Neuroscience, Baylor University, 2010

Biography

Dr. Karenna Malavanti joined the Psychology & Neuroscience department in 2017. Prior to coming to Baylor, she was an assistant professor at Carson-Newman University, a small liberal arts university. At Baylor, she teaches a variety of undergraduate courses such as cognition, forensic psychology, neuroscience and the law, psychology and culture, psychology of women and gender, and introductory psychological science in the Department of Psychology and Neuroscience. Dr. Malavanti is an active member of the Society of the Teaching of Psychology (APA Div. 2), where she holds a leadership position as Director of Communications and previously served as co-chair of the Early Career Psychologists committee. Additionally, she serves as Southwestern Vice President and member of the Board of Directors for Psi Chi International Honor Society for Psychology. At Baylor, she has been recognized for excellence in teaching and mentoring by the Office of the Provost, the Academy of Teaching and Learning, the College of Arts and Sciences, and the Office of Engaged Learning. Dr. Malavanti is passionate about evidence-based teaching, mentoring students, and utilizing innovative pedagogical techniques in the classroom. In her faculty-in-residence role, she supports first year undergraduate science majors and pre-health students.

Academic Interests and Research

Dr. Malavanti’s primary research interest is in applied cognition and human memory. She has three broad areas of scholarship, legal psychology (i.e., efficacy of juror instructions and expert testimony, eyewitness memory in bilinguals, optimal line-up procedures), applying cognitive psychology to education (i.e., increasing retention of course material, optimal study strategies), and the impact of historical contributions of women of color in psychological science and their views on mentorship and resilience. She regularly presents scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL), innovative teaching practices, and professional development workshops at national teaching conferences in Psychology and in Neuroscience. Dr. Malavanti greatly enjoys sharing knowledge through evidence-based teaching practices and student-centered course design and hopes her students love learning about the mind as much as she does. 

Representative Book Chapters and Publications

Malavanti, K. F. Maffeo, M. Thakker, V., & Witherby, A. (2026). Teaching the Neural Basis of Behavior: Updates and Best Practices. In In D. Dunn and A. Richmond (Eds.), Oxford Handbook of Undergraduate Psychology Education, 2^nd edition. Oxford.

Malavanti, K. F. & Bauer, L. (2024). Jeannette Altarriba: Expert in Bilingual Language Processing. In R. Mason, J. Grahe, and M. Ceynar (Eds.), Early Psychological Research Contributions from Women of Color Volume 2. Routledge.

Trent, J. T., Baggett, A. R., Dasse, M. N., & Malavanti, K. F. (2017). A hybridization of simultaneous and sequential lineups: Opportunity for comparison enhances performance. Applied Psychology in Criminal Justice, 13, 96-108.

Malavanti, K. F., Terrell, J. T., Dasse, M. N. & Weaver, C. A., III. (2014). The “Curse of Knowledge” in estimating jurors’ understanding of memory: Attorneys know more about memory than the general population.  Applied Psychology in Criminal Justice, 10, 99-105. 

Representative Presentations

Malavanti, K. F. & Sen, C. (2025, October). Beyond borders: Globalizing student research in psychological science. 2025 Association for Psychological Science Global Summit. Virtual.

*Rodriguez, D. & Malavanti, K. F. (2025, August). Empowered through experience: Wisdom from trailblazing women of color​. McNair Research Conference, Waco, TX.

Malavanti, K & Soto, C. (2024, July). Academic Job Market Tips I: How to Polish Your CV and Write a Teaching Statement. Association for Psychological Science, virtual professional development webinar.

Malavanti, K. F., Palm, M. & Bodet, J. P. (2024, February). Aligning student-centered values and course materials: Strengthening your teaching portfolio by using open access psychology resources. 2024 Annual Conference on Teaching: On Demand. Virtual       

Malavanti, K. F. (2023, May). Best Practices for team-teaching in psychological science and neuroscience courses. Association for Psychological Science Teaching Institute, Washington, D.C.

Peters, J., Gosnell, C., Malavanti, K.F., Mendoza, A., Metz, M., & Strange, S., (2021, October). The Holistic ECP: Centering values, boundaries, & equity as cornerstones of career decisions. 2021 Annual Conference on Teaching, Virtual.

Malavanti, K. F. (2020, July). Mastery quizzing and active learning across levels of courses. Biennial International Seminar for the Teaching of Psychology, Paris, France. **Deferred due to COVID-19

Malavanti, K. F.  (2019, June). Increasing student use of cognitively active learning behaviors. 2019 Psychology One Conference, Durham, NC.

Malavanti, K. F.  (2019, January). Fostering deep learning in and out of the classroom. 2019 National Institute for the Teaching of Psychology, St. Pete Beach, FL.

Nesbitt, B. N., Malavanti, K. F., & Weaver, C.A. (2018, November). What did the eyewitness see? Mock juror perceptions of eyewitness evidence. 58^th annual meeting of the Psychonomic Society, New Orleans.

Kurinec, C. A., Malavanti, K. F., Nesbitt, B. N., & Weaver, C. A. III. (2017, April). Race and dialect bias in juror decision making. 2017 Southwestern Psychological Association conference, San Antonio.

*Anderson, T. A. & Malavanti, K. F. (2017, March). Short-term memory formation in Spanish/English balanced and unbalanced bilinguals. 2017 Southeastern Psychological Association conference, Atlanta.

Awards

• Elizabeth Vardaman Award for Excellence in Mentoring Undergraduates, 2025   
• Institute for Oral History Summer Faculty Fellowship, 2025
• Veterans of Baylor Coin Recognition Ceremony Awardee (Faculty Recognition), 2025      
• College of Arts and Sciences Teaching Innovation Award, 2024 and 2025
• Baylor Campus Living & Learning Golden Bear Award for Student Care, 2024
• College of Arts and Sciences Core Curriculum Virtue Award (Empathy), 2023
• Baylor Campus Living & Learning Faculty Member of the Year, 2023
• Affordable Course Materials Fellow, Summer 2022
• Summer Ethics Seminar Fellow, Summer 2022
• Learning Design Fellow, Summer 2021
• Active Learning Lab Fellow, Spring 2020
• Baylor Teaching Fellow, 2018-2019
• Summer Faculty Institute Fellow, Summer 2018
• Mortarboard Circle of Achievement (Faculty Recognition), 2018
• University Teaching Development Grant, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2025 
• Society for the Teaching of Psychology, Early Career Travel Grant, 2017, 2018, 2019
• Carson-Newman University Student Advocate of the Year, Spring 2017 
• Psi Chi Faculty Advisor Regional Travel Grant, Spring 2016
• Carson-Newman University Student Government Association, Appreciation Award, 2016
• Carson-Newman University Excellence in Student Advising, Spring 2016 
• Carson-Newman University Research Award, Spring 2015

Courses Regularly Taught at Baylor

PSY 1305          Psychological Science: Understanding Human Behavior

PSY/NSC 3311   Cognition

PSY 3313          Psychology & Culture

PSY 3360          Psychology of Women and Gender

PSY 3380          Forensic Psychology

NSC 3381          Neuroscience and the Law

PSY 4385          Psychology & Film

Past Courses Taught at Baylor

NSC 1306          Introductory Neuroscience

PSY/NSC 3323   Sensation & Perception

PSY/NSC 5V71   Supervised Teaching (graduate)

PSY/NSC 5311   Memory and Cognition (graduate)