Francesca Dunn

Postgraduate Award at the University of South Florida Award - Forensic Anthropology

I first came across “anthropology” as a 14-year-old enthralled with a crime-solving TV show centred on a forensic anthropologist. Within a year, I had discovered that this term put a name to my fascination with the forensic process of using the features that make us different to find someone’s lost identity. This lead to my application to read Anthropology at Oxford Brookes University. I then completed my MSc at the Centre for Anatomy and Human Identification, where I was able to complete research on the identification of individuals from photographs through the features of their hands.

My doctoral research in the US will develop a method of age estimation that aims to better the way in which we investigate the age of a living person. This research will impact people who are undergoing any form of legal processing that is dependent on whether they are of majority age and work to ensure that undocumented minors are recorded and processed as such. As a diver and mystery novel enthusiast, I am also excited to experience all that life in the US has to offer, both above and below water.