A forensic linguistics title nominated for the BAAL Book Prize

Malcolm Coulthard and Alison Johnson's An introduction to forensic linguistics - Language as Evidence has been shortlisted for the British Association for Applied Linguistics annual prize for the outstanding book in the field published in English in the world in 2007. The prize will be awarded at the next BAAL conference, to be held from 11 to 13 September 2008 at Swansea University.

\ Posted on 25 July 2008

CFL enters into collaboration with iIIRG

CFL has entered into an official collaboration with the International Investigative Interviewing Research Group. The iIIRG brings together academics and practitioners who carry out research in investigative interviewing of victims, witnesses and suspects of crime. The group's focus on strong interaction between academia and practitioners is a major benefit as it helps to shape research to focus more directly on practitioner issues. The iIIRG currently has strong links with the University of Teesside and the Norwegian Police University College. The Memorandum of Agreement signed between CFL and iIIRG on 15th July 2008, allows both organisations to build on and formalise a collaboration which already involves joint research initiatives and data sharing, teaching exchanges and the running of practitioner conferences and workshops. The second iIIRG annual conference, to be held at the University of Teesside from 14th to 16th April 2009, will be followed by a 1.5-day Masterclass in Linguistics and Investigative Interviewing run by CFL.

\ Posted on 22 July 2008

Text messaging study - can you help?

Tim Grant's Joseph Lister Award lecture at the Festival of Science of the British Association for the Advancement of Science will be held at the University of Liverpool between 12 and 1pm on Monday 8th September. His talk on 'Txt crimes, sex crimes and murder - the science of Forensic Linguistics' will be based on authentic data, which Tim has been collecting on this website. If you would like to attend the lecture, tickets can be obtained here. To contribute text messages to the data collection please follow this link and fill in the simple form. You do not need to attend the lecture to contribute data but if you do your messages may be analysed as part of the lecture!

\ Posted on 16 July 2008

Expert Linguists in US Supreme Court

On June 26th 2008, the US Supreme Court overturned by a majority of 5-4 the Washington D.C. ban on handguns as unconstitutional. Writing the majority opinion, Justice Antonin Scalia referred to the linguistic analyses supporting the D.C. law as 'unknown this side of the looking glass (except, apparently, in some courses on Linguistics)'. This case is an interesting example of how two sides (majority and minority opinion) can look at the same piece of text and arrive at opposite conclusions. The Opinion and Dissent documents are available from the FindLaw website.

\ Posted on 07 July 2008
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PhD opportunities at Aston University

Aston University is inviting applications for fees-only bursaries for study at the School of Languages and Social Sciences. Forensic linguistics is one of the eligible areas - for details please follow this link .

\ Posted on 20 June 2008
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Working with an interpreter workshop

It is now possible to register for this event, to be held on 16 June 2008 at Aston University in Birmingham city centre. Please download the registration form - in pdf format here or as an MS Word document here. For details of the programme, see the events section of this website.

\ Posted on 26 May 2008
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Forensic linguistics in the news (again!)

A feature on the work of forensic linguistic experts has appeared on the BBC News website today. Tim Grant was interviewed by Kathryn Edwards and spoke about his evidence in a case involving a terrorist suspect, as well as the activities at the Centre for Forensic Linguistics. Tim made it clear the idea of a linguistic fingerprint should be treated with caution. Explaining the possible weight of forensic linguistic evidence he said, "It's like giving a description of someone who has red hair and blue eyes. That's something quite unusual and can help you build a picture of the suspect, but it's not enough to convict someone on." The story is available from the BBC News website.

\ Posted on 21 May 2008
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Forensic Linguistics Summer School update

The eighth edition of the International Summer School in Forensic Linguistic Analysis will take place between 15 and 19 September 2008 at Aston University. The programme is now available here. To register download the registration form - in pdf format here or as an MS Word document here.

\ Posted on 21 May 2008
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CFL officially launched

The CFL launch event on Tuesday attracted over 70 participants, an eclectic mix of linguists (including expert forensic linguists), forensic consultants, police officers and lawyers. We'd like to thank everybody for the interesting questions, inspiring comments and stimulating coffee-break discussions. We will soon be posting pictures from the day on this website.

\ Posted on 15 May 2008
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Forensic linguistics on BBC Radio 4

An interview with Tim Grant for 'Word of Mouth', a programme exploring the way in which English is used nowadays in a variety of contexts, was broadcast on BBC Radio 4 today. When interviewed by Michael Rosen last week, Tim covered many areas of forensic linguistics but the final edit concentrated on investigative techniques and discussed the Jenny Nicholl murder trial, sociolinguistic profiling of authors from written texts and the UNABOMBER case.

\ Posted on 06 May 2008
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CFL Launch Symposium update

We are pleased to announce that prof. M. Teresa Turell of Universitat Pompeu Fabra in Barcelona has accepted our invitation to give a talk at the launch symposium. The final programme for the event on 13 May 2008 is now ready and available in the events section of this website.

\ Posted on 25 April 2008
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A lecture on forensic linguistics in Brazil

On April 4th Malcolm Coulthard gave a lecture on forensic linguistics at the Catholic University of Pelotas in the south of Brazil. Despite the event being billed for 6.30-8.00 on a Friday evening, some 300 academic staff and students turned up, some of whom had travelled by coach from a university over an hour away. A week later Malcolm received an email from a student saying Brazil now has its own Malcolm, a local professor who has developed his own plagiarism detection software.

\ Posted on 18 April 2008
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IIIRG Conference

Dr Tim Grant appeared as an invited speaker giving a keynote address to the first International Investigative Interviewing Research Group conference held at the University of Derby on 26 and 27 March 2008. The talk "Linguistic insights into the Investigative Interview" was delivered to an audience of about ninety police officers, practitioners and academics. Research presentations were delivered by delegates from across the world including representatives from China, Australia and across Europe. The other plenary speakers were Dr. Rebecca Milne of University of Portsmouth, speaking on "Investigative Interviewing: Harmonising research and practice", Professor Mark Kebbell of Griffith University, Australia, speaking on "How can suspected sex offenders be interviewed effectively and ethically?", and Gary Shaw, National Interview Advisor from the UK National Police Improvement Agency speaking on "The revised ACPO interviewing strategy".

PowerPoint slides from Tim Grant's presentation can be downloaded here.

\ Posted on 3 April 2008
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CFL Launch Event

The new Centre for Forensic Linguistics at Aston University will be launched on 13 May 2008. The Centre, the first of its type in the world, combines leading-edge research, postgraduate and professional instruction and investigative forensic practice. The one-day launch conference with invited delegates from local and national police forces, the legal profession and academia will demonstrate the range and depth of the Centre's activities.

From the Centre, Malcolm Coulthard, Professor of Forensic Linguistics, will talk on 'The Work of the Forensic Linguist', Dr Krzysztof Kredens about the role of the interpreter in legal contexts and Dr Tim Grant about 'Investigative Linguistics as a Forensic Science'. In addition, Larry Solan, Don Forchelli Professor of Law at Brooklyn Law School and former President of the International Association of Forensic Linguists, will give a lecture entitled 'The Lawyer as Insincere Actor'. In the evening, following the Official Opening of the Centre by the Vice-Chancellor, Professor Coulthard will deliver his inaugural lecture, 'The Linguist as Detective and Expert Witness'.

\ Posted on 18 March 2008
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Language rights in court

An interesting case involving language rights is to be heard before a South African court. Last October, Ntombenhle Nkosi, Pan South African Language Board Chief Executive Officer, complained to the Equality Court against her son's school, where his mother tongue, IsiZulu, is taught as a second additional language. Ntombenhle Nkosi claims that her son is being discriminated against because, unlike pupils with Afrikaans or English as their first language, he receives substandard education in his native Isi Zulu. Accounts of the case can be found here and here.

\ Posted on 17 March 2008
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Text messages in the courtroom

Malcolm Coulthard provided expert evidence in a murder trial last week. His analysis of text messages alleged by the police to have been sent from the victim's mobile phone by the accused man was heard before Teesside Crown Court. An interesting account of the case and the role of forensic linguistics in the investigation and court proceedings can be found here.

\ Posted on 25 January 2008
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