A new 3-year Leverhulme Early Career Fellowship awarded to our Music Department

Dr Caroline Curwen has been awarded a prestigious Leverhulme Early Career Fellowship for her research project titled "Musical Evoked Imaginings in Synaesthetic and Non-Synaesthetic Expert Musicians." In October 2024, Dr Curwen will join Durham University’s Music Department to begin the three-year project.

 A PhD graduate from the University of Sheffield, Dr Curwen's previous work has provided compelling empirical evidence on the role of synaesthesia in music perception, emphasising its embodied and enactive nature. The new project will closely align with Durham’s Dr Kelly Jakubowski’s ongoing research, also funded by the Leverhulme Trust, which examines the impact of music on imagination.

 Dr Curwen's research aims to explore the complex ways in which music-colour synaesthesia—a phenomenon where music induces the perception of colours—shapes narrative imagination in expert musicians. This innovative project is set to challenge and expand current paradigms in music cognition, offering fresh insights into the interplay between sensory experiences and creative processes."