Victoria Gibbon

Associate Professor Victoria Gibbon joined the Division of Clinical Anatomy and Biological Anthropology in 2016. She is a well published NRF rated scientist. In addition to her research and teaching portfolios she is curator of the UCT Human Skeletal Repository. A role that has led her to initiate restitution processes at UCT to return unethically obtained human remains and led to establishment of updated procedures of access and stewardship of human remains at UCT. Here research has shown an interest in ethical practice in relation to ancient DNA and sampling.

A better understanding of human variability, past and present, is important to understand our adaptive potential as a species in an ever-changing environment. She uses a three-prong approach in her biological anthropological research theoretical, technological and biological. Theoretically she has an integrative perspective and uses a biocultural approach. With this approach she tries to explain and explore the genetic and environmental factors responsible for biological variation that allows people to be understood in their own cultural and environmental context. She uses this biological understanding to scrutinise, and challenge biased historical accounts to provide an objective view into past people’s lives from a cultural relativist perspective. To investigate variation, along with traditional methods of analyses, she uses technologically innovative ways to analyse capture and record data. She also applies anthropological concepts to a medico-legal context to expand her forensic anthropological and taphonomic research.

Her research and teaching interests are primarily in biological anthropology, human variation, forensic anthropology, forensic taphonomy and bioarchaeology. Her diverse background and training in anatomical, genetic, medical and anthropological sciences allows her to conduct research on a variety of topics, which provides a multitude of research opportunities for students.

Links to research, media and popular articles can be found at the bottom of this page.
• Google scholar: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=xlH5K24AAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao
• Scopus: https://www.scopus.com/authid/detail.uri?authorId=25824871700
• ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7875-3297