Forensic Jewellery: A Design-Led Approach to Establishing Identity in Forensic Human Identification

Through my award-winning, critically acclaimed PhD research in ‘Forensic Jewellery’, I was responsible for pioneering the first research of its kind in the world scoping jewellery’s role as a method of forensic human identification. Informed by my own background in both jewellery and service design, my PhD was a highly exploratory, inter, and multi-disciplinary investigation which sought to explore and articulate the current role, value, and future potential of jewellery in the otherwise scientific field(s) of policing, crime, and forensic science. Adopting a new hybrid role as the world’s first ‘Forensic Jeweller’, I explored this as an extension of my own personal design practice, in addition to that of a broader hybrid methodology through which the dualistic perspective(s) of both forensic science and jewellery design could be mutually explored. The research was fully funded through an RCUK CASE (Collaborative Awards in Social Science and Engineering) Doctoral Scholarship through the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) Capacity Building Cluster Grant, 'Capitalising on Creativity'. A unique interdisciplinary partnership between Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design (University of Dundee) and The Institute for Capitalising on Creativity (University of St. Andrews), the scholarship was the only one of its kind awarded in the UK. Based in the Visual Research Centre (VRC) at Dundee Contemporary Arts (DCA), the research was sponsored by the V&A Dundee, the first design museum in the UK outside of London.

The research culminated in a unique portfolio of practice (written, conceptual and visual), with relevance to both forensic science and jewellery design history, theory, and practice: including over 100 keynote talks, guest lectures, academic publications, artefacts, exhibitions, and media engagements.