Issue 2 – Student Spotlight

by Livia Sacchi 

 

Livia Sacchi is a third-year PhD student in the Psychophysiology and Emotion Regulation Lab (PERL) at the University of Lausanne (Switzerland). Her research examines the intersection of personality and emotions. She is especially interested in exploring pathways from traits to emotional reactions through appraisal processes, which are cognitive evaluations of environmental contexts. Her studies aim to shed light on individual differences in emotional reactivity. Her work has been published in some of our field’s prominent outlets, including Emotion and BMC Public Health. Apart from her scholarly outputs, she has been awarded “Honourable Mention” in the Poster presentations in 2022 SAS Conference. She has also recently joined the Graduate Editorial Board of Personality and Social Psychology Review.

As this year’s SASSC Vice-President, Livia is excited to work with students and faculty to increase the diversity within the SAS community. She has proposed different initiatives for SAS in the future, such as organising workshops related to biases in affective research and holding a SAS summer school which is tailored to diversity-related topics. Livia and the SAS community are excited to share their ideas with you and they hope to see you at 2023 SAS Conference!

Issue 1 – Student Spotlight

Angela M. Smith

Do you know a student (undergrad or graduate) who should be featured for their contribution to the study of affective science? Submit your nominations to

For our inaugural student spotlight, we are excited to feature the contributions and work of Angela Smith, the current Chair of the Society for Affective Science Student Committee (SASSC).

Angela Smith is a third-year PhD student in the social/personality psychology program at the University of Toronto working with Dr. Brett Ford in the Affective Science and Health Laboratory. Their research examines the ways in which emotion and emotion regulation are influenced by socioeconomic and cultural factors, and how this, in turn, influences physical and psychological health. Additionally, they are interested in the role that emotion regulation plays in the contexts of politics and social justice. Their work has been published in some of our field’s prominent outlets, including Psychological Science and Psychosomatic Medicine.

In addition to their exemplary research, Angela has been actively involved with SAS for the last several years – starting as the executive secretary for SASSC (2019-2021), moving up to vice chair (2020-2021), and now chair (2021-2022). In addition to their work with SASSC, Angela was also actively involved with planning the Emotion Regulation Pre-Conference at SAS in 2019. During this time, Angela has been a true advocate for students. To name a few, they successfully spearheaded a joint initiative creating the 2022 diversity award program for graduate students and postdocs, helped to create a video series highlighting the diversity of SAS’s student membership, and organized a series of student-focused salons that will be part of the official programming at SAS 2022.

As this year’s SASSC chair, Angela is excited to continue working with students and faculty to increase and highlight the diversity within the SAS community — and they hope to see you at SAS 2022 in April!