Dr Layla Renshaw
Faculties, departments and locations
- Faculty of Health, Science, Social Care and Education
- Department of Applied and Human Sciences
- School of Life Sciences, Pharmacy and Chemistry
- Penrhyn Road
Associate Professor
- Email:
- [email protected]
About
My research and teaching expertise combines forensic sciences and social sciences in the study of death and burial, with a strong focus on post-conflict and human rights investigations. My research interests include the role of archaeology in post-conflict investigations, the relationship between human remains and traumatic memory, and public and media perceptions of forensics.
I was an assistant archaeologist with the United Nation's International Criminal Tribunal for former-Yugoslavia, working on the exhumation and identification of war victims in post-war Kosovo. I have also worked in a consultative capacity for a number of UK police constabularies, working on human identification.
One of my primary research areas is the impact of recent and ongoing exhumations of mass graves from the Spanish Civil War. I carried out extensive field work in communities in rural Spain, assisting in exhumations and conducting ethnographic research with survivors, witnesses, forensic experts and relatives of the dead. I have written extensively on this topic, including a book in 2011, and have presented my work at a large number of national and international meetings and conferences.
My recent research concerns the recovery and commemoration of Australian and British World War I soldiers from Fromelles, Northern France, concentrating on the process of human identification, genetic testing, and the engagement of relatives in this process. I am also looking more broadly at the complex issues associated with the recovery of war dead from post-colonial contexts, and have organised a symposium and a recent special journal issue exploring these themes.
I have a degree in Archaeology and Anthropology from Oxford University, and I completed an MSc in Forensic Archaeology at the Institute of Archaeology, University College London. My PhD is in Anthropology, also from UCL.
I joined Kingston University in 2003 and I am now Associate Professor in Forensic Science. I teach topics in forensic archaeology and anthropology and also supervise a broad range of undergraduate and postgraduate research in methods of human identification and skeletal analysis.
Qualifications
- 2017 Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy
- 2004 - 2006 PG Cert HE. Kingston University
- 2003 - 2009 PhD Anthropology. UCL
- 2000 - 2001 MSc. Forensic Archaeological Sciences. UCL
- 1997 - 2000 BA Hons Archaeology and Anthropology. Oxford University
Domains
Courses taught
My research interests include: Social, political and ethical considerations in the investigation of war and human rights abuses. The archaeological and anthropological investigation of 20th century conflict, particularly the Spanish Civil War and World War I. The relationship between memory and physical evidence, in the investigation of the traumatic past. Media representation of, and public understanding, of exhumations, forensic science and genetics. Methods of human identification and skeletal analysis I also supervise undergraduate and postgraduate research in aspects of forensic anthropology, in conjunction with the Centre of Human Bioarchaeology at the Museum of London, concerning methods of skeletal identification, skeletal indicators of age, sex and population ancestry, life history reconstruction, nutritional and occupational stress markers, and skeletal and dental pathology.
Publications
Investigative genetic genealogy and the identification of the missing from war and mass violence
Renshaw, Layla, 2025, Journal of Disappearance Studies (1), 1pp 17-37, Published
Unrecovered objects: narratives of dispossession, slow violence and survival in the investigation of mass graves from the Spanish Civil War
Renshaw, Layla, 2020, Journal of Material Culture (25), 4pp 428-446, Published
Book review of: 'Manufactured bodies : the impact of industrialisation on London health' by Gaynor Western and Jelena Bekvalac
Renshaw, Layla, 2020, The London Journal (45), 3pp 351-353, Published
Inter-professional learning across the forensic science and paramedic science degrees
Renshaw, Layla, Burrell, Lisa, Doran, David and Ghatora, Baljit, 2017, Journal of Forensic Research and Analysis (1), 1, Published
Anzac anxieties: rupture, continuity, and authenticity in the commemoration of Australian war dead at Fromelles
Renshaw, Layla, 2017, Journal of War and Culture Studies (10), 4pp 324-339, Published
The recovery and commemoration of war dead from post-colonial contexts
Renshaw, Layla, 2017, Journal of War and Culture Studies (10), 4pp 267-271, Published
The archaeology of post-medieval death and burial
Renshaw, Layla and Powers, Natasha, 2016, Post-Medieval Archaeology (50), 1pp 159-177, Published
The dead and their public. Memory campaigns, issue networks and the role of the archaeologist in the excavation of mass graves
Renshaw, Layla, 2013, Archaeological Dialogues (20), 1pp 35-47, Published
The scientific and affective identification of Republican civilian victims from the Spanish Civil War
Renshaw, Layla, 2010, Journal of Material Culture (15), 4pp 449-463, Published
Uncovered: reversals of exposure and concealment in Spain's memory politics
Renshaw, Layla, 2009, New Literary Observer: Anthropology of Closed Societies (100), Published
Exhuming Loss: Memory, Materiality and Mass Graves of the Spanish Civil War
Renshaw, Layla (2011). [Published]
From dead places to places of the dead. The memorial power of battlefields, ruins, and burials in the warscapes of Spain and the Western front
Viejo-Rose, Dacia, Renshaw, Layla and Filippucci, Paola (2023). In: Biers, Trish, Stringer Clary, Katie, (eds.), Abingdon, U.K.: Routledgepp 275-291 [Published]
Ethical considerations in the investigation and commemoration of mass graves from the Spanish Civil War
Renshaw, Layla (2020). In: Squires, Kirsty, Errickson, David, Márquez-Grant, Nicholas, (eds.), Cham, Switzerland:pp 519-539 [Published]
Forensic archaeology and the production of memorial sites: situating the mass grave in a wider memory landscape
Renshaw, Layla (2019). In: De Nardi, Sarah, Orange, Hilary, High, Steven, Koskinen-Koivisto, Eerika, (eds.), Abingdon, U.K.:pp 99-108 [Published]
Forensic science as right and ritual in the recovery of World War I soldiers from the mass graves at Fromelles
Renshaw, Layla (2018). In: Becker, Annette, Tison, St├®phane, (eds.), Paris, France:pp 205-225 [Published]
The forensic gaze: reconstituting bodies and objects as evidence
Renshaw, Layla (2017). In: Dziuban, Zuzanna, (eds.), Vienna, Austria: New Academic Presspp 215-236 [Published]
The archaeology and material culture of modern military death
Renshaw, Layla (2013). In: Tarlow, Sarah, Nilsson Stutz, Liv, (eds.), Oxford, U.K.: Oxford University Presspp 763-780 [Published]
The Exhumation of Civilian Victims of Conflict and Human Rights Abuses: Political, Ethical, and Theoretical Considerations
Renshaw, Layla (2013). In: Tarlow, Sarah, Nilsson Stutz, Liv, (eds.), Oxford, U.K.: Oxford University Presspp 781-800 [Published]
Missing Bodies Near-at-Hand: The Dissonant Memory and Dormant Graves of the Spanish Civil War
Renshaw, Layla (2010). In: Bille, Mikkel, Hastrup, Frida, Flohr Sorenson, Tim, (eds.)pp 45-61 [Published]
The Iconography of exhumation: representations of mass graves from the Spanish Civil War
Renshaw, Layla (2007). In: Clack, Timothy, Brittain, Marcus, (eds.), Walnut Creek, California, USA:pp 237-252 [Published]
Forensic science as ritual and right
Renshaw, Layla(2017). [Published]
Collaborative learning across the forensic science and paramedic science degrees
Ghatora, Baljit, Renshaw, Layla, Doran, David and Burrell, Lisa(2016). [Published]