Academic interests
- Corporeal aesthetics
- Truth recovery
- Transitional justice
- Intersections between art and law
- International criminal justice
- Refugee and migrant rights
Robyn Gill-Leslie is the postdoctoral fellow on the Bodies of Evidence project. Gill-Leslie’s work focuses on corporeal, aesthetic and creative approaches to truth recovery after atrocity. Intentionally inter-disciplinary, her work intersects with law, humanities and socio-legal approaches. Focusing on deconstructive, decolonial and reflective academics, she is interested in how the physical body is framed inside and outside of truth recovery mechanisms. Gill-Leslie’s expertise is in sub-Saharan Africa, specifically South Africa’s truth-finding mechanisms including the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, and the Marikana Commission of Inquiry.
Background
Gill-Leslie has a PhD in Law (Transitional Justice) and a Master’s degree in International Conflict from King’s College, London. She was awarded both the Doctoral Innovation award from South Africa’s National Research Foundation, and the International Graduate Scholarship from King’s College, London, for her PhD. Most recently, Gill-Leslie was the recipient of the Modern Law Review’s early career research grant. Gill-Leslie also holds a Bachelor of Science (Honours) degree from the University of Cape Town. She worked for over a decade in human rights, refugee and migrant rights, and prison reform in Southern Africa, before returning to the academy. Since completing her PHD, Gill-Leslie has worked at Leeds University on the PRAXIS project, which champions the contribution of arts and humanities scholars to combatting global development challenges.