Natalie Kyneswood

Dr Natalie Kyneswood is a Wellcome Trust Early-Career Fellow at the Centre for Socio-Legal Studies (CSLS) and Principal Investigator of the Wellcome-funded project: 'Care in the courtroom: Trauma-informed specialist courts and the medicalisation of justice'. This five-year, interdisciplinary project commenced in January 2025 and explores the role of trauma-informed care and neuroscience in transforming trial procedures, courtroom environments, and the treatment, questioning and wellbeing of victims of sexual violence. It will include examining the pilot of Specialist Sexual Violence Support (SSVS) project courts in England and the creation of a trauma-informed Sex Offence Court for Scotland. 

Natalie's Wellcome Early-Career Award builds upon her previous research and the ESRC Postdoctoral Fellowship she completed at the CSLS in 2024: 'The Extension of Pre-recorded Cross-examination and Related Special Measures to Adult "Intimidated" Complainants in Sex Offence Cases'. This one-year Fellowship consolidated Natalie's doctoral research investigating the application of pre-recorded cross-examination under s. 28 of the Youth Justice and Criminal Evidence Act 1999 to adult, "intimidated" victim-witnesses in sex offence cases. Natalie's ESRC-funded PhD in Law (Socio-Legal Studies Pathway) was awarded by the University of Warwick in 2023.

In addition to her doctoral training, Natalie achieved an MSc in Socio-Legal Studies with Distinction from the University of Bristol, is a non-practising barrister and a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, and has extensive experience of teaching Criminal Evidence and Criminal Law at Warwick Law School. Natalie has also served as Editor of the CSLS Frontiers of Socio-Legal Studies blog.