Dr Kelly Mackenzie LLB, PhD

PhD (2019) in Law, University of Southampton.

LLB (2013) in Law, University of Southampton.

Kelly was awarded her PhD at the School of Law, University of Southampton in 2019. Her thesis explored representations of women’s lived experiences of conflict-related sexual violence in the field of transitional justice. 

During her PhD studies, Kelly worked as a research assistant on a project that explored young people’s perceptions of sexual consent (2015-2017) and an impact study co-funded by the Prison Reform Trust and an ESRC Impact Acceleration Account Award titled, ‘A Helping Hand Supporting Families in the Resettlement of People Serving IPPs’ (2019).

Kelly also worked as a Seminar Leader for the Legal System and Reasoning undergraduate module from 2014-2017.

Before joining the University of Birmingham, Kelly worked as an Independent Domestic Violence Advisor supporting victim-survivors through their experiences of domestic abuse.

Kelly’s research interests are focussed primarily on gender-based violence (particularly domestic abuse and conflict-related sexual violence), transitional justice, crime and justice, and trauma-informed responses to harm.

She is currently working on the Trauma, Social Harm and Health in Criminal Justice Involved Women: The Women’s Risk Needs Assessment Validation Research Study. 

As a postgraduate researcher, Kelly conducted PhD research titled ‘Adjusting the Narrative Lens: Overcoming the Incommensurability of Representations of Rape and Sexual Violence in the Field of Transitional Justice.’ This was funded by the University of Southampton MPhil/PhD Law Faculty Research Scholarship.

Kelly is a member of the Violence Against Women and Girls Research Network (VAWGRN) team. She is currently developing the Early Career Research Network and Special Interests Groups branches of the VAWGRN.