Dr Wanda Canton (pronounced Van-da) is a researcher, practitioner and artist. Her interests primarily centre on critical criminology and alternatives to the criminal justice system, psychotraumatology and improving services for under-supported communities, and the relationship between sound and social justice.

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She has lectured in criminology and sociology since 2022 at the University of Brighton, Sussex University and Newcastle University. She has been an invited speaker/lecturer at the University of Amsterdam (2025), the Listening Biennial in Norway (2022) and the University of British Colombia, Canada (2022). Her doctorate began as a project exploring the criminalisation of rap music, with an interest in the social and political demonisation of UK Drill. She found complexities in how 'the community' is situated as an alternative to the criminal justice system, arguing that the community too can reproduces forms of policing, property, exclusion and gatekeeping.

 

Her​​ publications argue against the policing of UK Drill and the failure to recognise its artistic qualities, the ways in which rap music contributes and potentially decolonises knowledge and intellectual/political conventions, and the therapeutic practice of rap music. The latter pertains to Wanda's work as a mental health practitioner and service manager. From 2016, Wanda worked across recovery day centres, secure psychiatric hospitals, statutory and third sector services to deliver sound, spoken word and rap music programmes for mental health and social dialogue. Her approach and facilitation style received national acclaim and organisational awards. She is particularly passionate about working with people who are incarcerated and is currently managing a team of trauma-informed practitioners working in women's prisons and probation. 

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In 2022 Wanda founded Sonic Rebellions, an international network of artists, academics and activists exploring the relationship between sound and social justice. The network has a book series under Routledge and has hosted bi-annual seasons of events across the UK and online. Volume 1, Sonic Rebellions: Sound and Social Justice was published in 2024 and emphasised the socio-political contributions of sonic agents and people who are not always recognised as change-makers. The second volume on War, Conflict and Remembering in 2026 focuses on the ways in which sound can be useful in conceptualising and surviving violence, with a focus on the Global South. Sonic Rebellions III, hosted in July 2026 centred on themes of policing and criminalisation.

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