Valentina Canessa-Pollard
Senior Lecturer in Psychology
About
(formerly Valentina Cartei)
Current role: Lecturer in Psychology, Head of BSc Counselling Psychology Programme
Research Fellow – 聽鈥淭he Healing Voice鈥�: University of St Etienne/ Lyon, ST ETIENNE, France, 1 Sep 2020 – 6 June 2021 (IDEX Grant)
Research Fellow – 聽鈥淪ex Stereotypes and the Voice: a Developmental Perspective鈥�: University of Sussex, School of Psychology, 1 May 2017 – 31 Aug 2020 (Leverhulme Grant)
PhD in Psychology granted by the School of Psychology at the University of Sussex, and my BSc (Hons) Computer Science was granted by the University of Pisa.
Non-academic roles:
Trainer, Researcher and Volunteer Services Co-ordinator: Survivors’ Network Rape Crisis Centre, Brighton, 1 Jan 2010 – 30 Apr 2017
Trustee for Rape Crisis England & Wales, 2016-2018
Professional
I am a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, and a Chartered Psychologist with British Psychological Society.
Key Publications
Publications related to human vocal communication
Papers published in major international peer-reviewed multi-disciplinary scientific journals
Canessa-Pollard, V., Reby, D., Banerjee, R., Oakhill, J., & Garnham, A. (2022). The development of explicit occupational gender stereotypes in children: Comparing perceived gender ratios and competence beliefs.聽Journal of Vocational Behavior,听134, 103703.
Waters, S., Kanber, E., Lavan, N., Belyk, M., Carey, D.,听Cartei, V.,聽Lally, C., Miquel, M. and McGettigan, C. (2021). Singers show enhanced performance and neural representation of vocal imitation.聽Philosophical Transactions B.
Cartei, V., Oakhill, J., Garnham, A., Banerjee, R., & Reby, D. (2021). Voice Cues Influence Children鈥檚 Assessment of Adults鈥� Occupational Competence.聽Journal of Nonverbal Behavior,听45(2), 281-296.
Cartei, V., Oakhill, J., Garnham, A., Banerjee, R., & Reby, D. (2020). 鈥淭his is what a mechanic sounds like鈥�: children鈥檚 vocal control reveals implicit occupational stereotypes.聽Psychological Science,听31(8), 957-967.
Cartei, V.,聽Banerjee, R., Garnham, A., Oakhill, J., Roberts, L. & Reby, D. (2020). Physiological and perceptual correlates of masculinity in children鈥檚 voices.聽Horm. Behav.
Cartei, V.,聽Banerjee, R., Garnham, A., Oakhill, J., Roberts, L. & Reby, D. (2019). Children can control the expression of masculinity and femininity through the voice.聽R. Soc. Open Sci.聽[citations: 5]
Cartei, V.,聽Banerjee, R., Hardouin, L. & Reby, D (2019) The role of sex-related voice variation in children聽Br. J. Dev. Psychol. [citations: 1]
Waters, S., Kanber, E., Lavan, N., Carey, D.,听Cartei, V.,听Lally, C., … & McGettigan, C. (2019). Neural representations of enhanced speech motor control in trained singers.聽J. Acoust. Soc. Am., 146(4), 2790-2790.
Pisanski, K., Cartei, V., McGettigan, C., Raine, J., & Reby, D. (2016). Voice modulation: a window into the origins of human vocal control?.聽Trends in cognitive sciences,听20(4), 304-318.
Cartei, V., Bond, R., & Reby, D. (2014). What makes a voice masculine: Physiological and acoustical correlates of women’s ratings of men’s vocal masculinity.聽Hormones and Behavior,听66(4), 569-576.
Cartei, V., Cowles, W., Banerjee, R., & Reby, D. (2014). Control of voice gender in pre鈥恜ubertal children.聽British Journal of Developmental Psychology,听32(1), 100-106.
Cartei, V., & Reby, D. (2013). Effect of formant frequency spacing on perceived gender in pre-pubertal children’s voices.聽PLoS One,听8(12), e81022.
Cartei, V., Cowles, H. W., & Reby, D. (2012). Spontaneous voice gender imitation abilities in adult speakers.聽PloS one,听7(2), e31353.
Cartei, V., & Reby, D. (2012). Acting gay: Male actors shift the frequency components of their voices towards female values when playing homosexual characters.聽Journal of Nonverbal Behavior,听36, 79-93.
Book Chapters
Cartei, V.聽& Reby, D. (2019). The evolution of sexual dimorphism in human voice. In F. La (Ed.),听Training Female Voices. Compton Publishing.
Publications related to sexual violence recovery and prevention
Love, G., De Michele, G., Giakoumidaki, C., S谩nchez, E. H., Lukera, M., & Cartei, V. (2017). Improving access to sexual violence support for marginalised individuals: Findings from the lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans* and the black and minority ethnic communities.聽Critical and Radical Social Work,听5(2), 163-179.
Rymer, S., & Cartei, V. (2015). Supporting transgender survivors of sexual violence: learning from users鈥� experiences.聽Critical and Radical Social Work,听3(1), 155-164.
Books
Rymer, S., & Cartei, V. (2019). Working with Trans Survivors of Sexual Violence: A Guide for Professionals. Jessica Kingsley Publishers.
Cartei, V. & Grosso, F. (2016). Oltre il Silenzio. Franco Angeli Editore.
Research
My research focuses on two different areas:
1. Human non-verbal communication
I am interested in what (and why) we communicate about ourselves through our voice (rather than our words). Previous work included vocal expression and perception of masculinity, femininity and social stereotyping, from cognitive, evolutionary and developmental perspectives.
More recently, I have focused on the role of vocal communication in health, and I am investigating voice-based approaches to improve well-being.
2. Sexual Violence Prevention and Recovery
My research in this area focuses on investigating the psychosocial factors involved in sexual violence, abuse and trauma prevention and recovery, as well as in developing theory-based interventions within an empowerment ethos to improve well-being outcomes for survivors of sexual violence and abuse, no matter how or when it happened.
PhD Supervision
Areas of supervision interest: any of the above, including vocal cues to social stereotyping, voice-based approaches to well-being, non-verbal approaches to empathic communication, sexual violence, sexual trauma, childhood sexual abuse.
Research Output
Articles
Anikin, A., Canessa-Pollard, V., Pisanski, K., Massanet, M. and Reby, d. (2023) iScience, 26 (11). pp. 1-13. ISSN 2589-0042
Canessa-Pollard, V., Reby, D., Banerjee, R., Oakhill, J. and Garnham, A. (2022) Journal of Vocational Behavior. ISSN 0001-8791
Other department members
Alison Hounsome
Programme Administrator
