Professor Lady Sue Black
The Peagram Lecturer for 2027
Sue Black is the UK’s most experienced human anatomist and forensic anthropologist. She is President of St. John’s College, Oxford and Chancellor of Anglia Ruskin University.
Photograph by David Gross
Forensic Anthropology in the Real World
We are all very comfortable watching ‘forensic’ programmes on the TV or reading about how science helps to solve crimes in fiction, but what is it like in the real world? Sue Black is the UK's leading forensic anthropologist. Her work has ranged from war crimes investigations in Kosovo to single suspicious deaths in the UK and everything in between. She will talk about how her upbringing and an academic career in human anatomy paved the way for a career in this field and how her current research is helping to identify perpetrators of child sexual abuse globally. She says 'it may seem like a dark topic when you work with death every day of your life, but it is surprising just how much hope and inspiration can be found if you know where to look'.
