Ferllini, Roxana (Roxana Ferllini Timms)

PERSONAL:

Education: Lane Community College, A.S., University of Oregon, B.Sc., M.A.

ADDRESSES:

Office—Institute of Archaeology, University College London, 31-34 Gordon Sq., London WC1H 0PY, England. E-mail—r.ferllini@ucl.ac.uk.

CAREER:

Institute of Archaeology, University College London, London, England, lecturer; has worked as a senior forensic anthropologist for the U.K. Foreign Office and the United Nations.

WRITINGS:

NONFICTION

Principios de arqueología forense, Editorial Universidad Estatal a Distancia (San José, Puerto Rico), 1993.

Silent Witness: How Forensic Anthropology Is Used to Solve the World's Toughest Crimes, Firefly Books (Buffalo, NY), 2002.

Raising the Dead, foreword and case study by Cyril Wecht, John Blake (London, England), 2003.

(Editor) Forensic Archaeology and Human Right Violations, Charles C. Thomas (Springfield, IL), 2007.

(Editor, with Megan B. Brickley) Forensic Anthropology: Case Studies from Europe, Charles C. Thomas (Springfield, IL), 2007.

Contributor to Forensic Osteological Analysis: A Book of Case Studies, edited by Scott I. Fairgrive, Charles C. Thomas (Springfield, IL), 1999. Contributor to periodicals, including Torture, Revista de Ciencias Forenses, and Science & Justice.

SIDELIGHTS:

Roxana Ferllini is a forensic anthropologist and archaeologist. Aside from forensic anthropology, her research interests include human rights issues, mass disasters, and taphonomy, the study of processes that affect the fossilization of plant and animal remains. Outside of academia, she has served as a forensic anthropologist in two United Nations missions in Kosovo and Rwanda.

Ferllini published Silent Witness: How Forensic Anthropology Is Used to Solve the World's Toughest Crimes after returning from her assignment in Kosovo. The book serves as an introduction with twenty-nine case studies in the field of forensic anthropology, a sub-branch of anthropology that, among other procedures, examines skeletal remains to determine a range of information regarding the bones and the death itself. The book uses examples from victims of plane crashes, bombings, and ethnic and politically motivated murder. Writing in a School Library Journal review, Dori DeSpain noted that "Ferllini draws on her wide experience to produce a fascinating look at her profession's capability to illuminate history's mysteries." An reviewer in Science News pointed out that the color photographs and images found throughout the book "reveal some startling details of forensic anthropologists' work." Booklist contributor Gilbert Taylor wrote that the book is an "exciting application of science [that] will hook even reluctant students" and readers.

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Booklist, August, 2002, Gilbert Taylor, review of Silent Witness: How Forensic Anthropology Is Used to Solve the World's Toughest Crimes, p. 1896.

School Library Journal, March, 2003, Dori DeSpain, review of Silent Witness, p. 260; October, 2003, review of Silent Witness, p. 562.

Science News, April 12, 2003, review of Silent Witness, p. 239.

ONLINE

University College London, Institute of Archaeology Web site,http://www.ucl.ac.uk/ (March 24, 2007), author profile.