معرفی
Dr Caroline Curwen is a University Teacher in Music Psychology at the School of Languages, Arts and Societies, University of Sheffield. Her academic journey includes a clarinet performance degree from the Royal Northern College of Music (1993), an MA in Psychology of Music (2016), and a PhD from the University of Sheffield focusing on music-colour synaesthesia. She transitioned to academia after a career in chartered accounting, driven by personal experiences with chromesthesia—a form of synaesthesia linking sound to color perception.
Her research examines music-colour synaesthesia through embodied and enactive cognition frameworks, arguing it represents conceptual correspondences grounded in sensorimotor processes rather than mere perception. Key interests include:
- Conceptual mechanisms for abstract representation in synaesthesia
- Sensorimotor foundations of music-colour associations
- Philosophical implications for theories of consciousness
- Individual variability in cognitive processing
Her publications consistently explore sensorimotor interactions and cognitive semantics in synaesthesia, with recent work emphasizing emotional responses and cross-modal conceptual mapping. She actively contributes to public engagement, including BBC interviews and the immersive installation 'Colourama' at Sheffield's Festival of the Mind.
Professional roles include:
- Treasurer of the European Society for the Cognitive Sciences of Music
- Consulting Editor for Musicae Scientiae journal
She has secured grants like the AHRC-funded project analyzing COVID-19's impact on South Yorkshire's arts sector and teaches across undergraduate and MA Psychology of Music programs.
