Alice Paver: reflecting on an industry placement with the Forensic Voice Centre

For the last 3 months, I’ve had the enormous privilege of doing a work placement at the Forensic Voice Centre with Richard Rhodes, Katherine Earnshaw and Bryony Nuttall. For my PhD at the University of Cambridge, I’ve been exploring the relationship between voice quality and voice distinctiveness in forensic phonetic contexts, particularly how poor-quality audio impacts voice quality analysis. After several years researching the area of forensic speech science, I decided I wanted to experience my own research in action and get a taste of what being a forensic speech and audio expert really means. I approached the team last year when I was about half-way through my PhD at the University of Cambridge and, with the generous support from my funding body, the Open-Oxford-Cambridge Doctoral Training Partnership (AHRC), we devised a bespoke internship that perfectly complimented my PhD project and my interests in the field.

I completed some training in voice quality analysis, specifically focussing on analysing the same speaker in different technical conditions. We also collaboratively devised and conducted an inter-laboratory comparison exercise focussed on voice quality, with several other forensic audio labs taking part in this quality management exercise.

My experience has been varied and fascinating; I watched the team review and advise on a script for a fictionalised podcast about forensic speech scientists, and I helped prep cross-examination questions for MSc students participating in a mock court case at the University of York. Much of my time was spent shadowing the team in all the different stages of forensic casework, from prepping and screening cases, to communicating with police forces, to completing detailed auditory analysis. This has given me invaluable experience and a fascinating insight into a potential future career for me. I’m thoroughly grateful to the team at the Forensic Voice Centre for giving me this opportunity, and for being so dedicated to conducting extremely thorough and high-quality work.