PhonLab and FORGE are pleased to announce the next FORGE speaker of the academic year: Dr Christin Kirchhübel (Principal Consultant, Soundscape Voice Evidence). Details of the talk can be found below:

TITLE

Voice Analysis as evidence – the need for competency testing!

ABSTRACT

I will start the talk by giving a brief outline of the landscape surrounding the provision of evidential voice analysis services in the UK. I will then discuss the importance of integrating competency testing into the life of a forensic speech science practitioner. I highlight the challenges, but also present possible solutions.

TIME & PLACE

W07, 1400-1450, Mon 21st Nov 2022, County South C89. (Please note that this talk will not be streamed or recorded.)

UCREL and FORGE are pleased to announce the second FORGE speakers of the academic year: Prof Tim Grant and Dr Lucia Busso (York). Details of the talk can be found below:

TITLE

FoLD: a permanent, controlled-access, online repository for forensic linguistic research

ABSTRACT

This talk presents an innovative online resource for sharing and accessing forensic linguistics data, the Forensic Linguistic Databank (FoLD – https://fold.aston.ac.uk), developed in the Aston Institute for Forensic Linguistics (AIFL)  at Aston University, Birmingham. FoLD is a permanent, controlled access online repository for forensic linguistic data, including malicious communication data, investigative interview data, hate speech, and legal language.

Since access to relevant forensic linguistic data has been notoriously challenging since the conception of the discipline in the 1960s, FoLD represents the first attempt to provide researchers with the opportunity of sharing datasets of different levels of sensitivity and ethical concern.

In this talk we present the FoLD repository, how to donate data, and how to access already existing datasets from the website.

We further showcase a project carried out by researchers in the FoLD research centre at AIFL using data from FoLD.

TIME & PLACE

W04, 1400-1450, Mon 31st Oct 2022. Teams.

PhonLab and FORGE are pleased to announce the first FORGE speaker of the academic year: Dr Vincent Hughes (York). Details of the talk can be found below:

TITLE

Why uncertainty matters in forensics… (phonetics, sociophonetics, and just about everything else)

TIME & PLACE

W02, 1500-1550, Tue 18th Oct 2022. County South C89 or Teams.

Please note that due to an ongoing FORGE curse, David Kernot’s talk has been cancelled. We may reschedule once we’ve taken advice on how to cast counter-curse measures.

The Psycholinguistics Research Group and FORGE are delighted to announce a joint talk by our upcoming external speaker: David Kernot (Australian Department of Defence, Science and Technology). Details of his talk are below:

TITLE
The Application of Stylometric Analysis to Fake News: The statistical analysis of language variations for identity

ABSTRACT
The known and contested works of Shakespeare along with other Elizabethan playwrights have a rich tapestry of research around contested authorship. Using a series of algorithms based on aspects of the human referential process, sensory word use, and internal gender, we highlight several new claims about Shakespeare’s work. Drawing on embodied cognition, the research is then placed within today’s security landscape. By examining adversarial data, extreme, lone actor, and troll messaging, we suggest that early signs of radicalisation might exist to cue bigger systems.

TIME & PLACE
1230-1330, Tue 17^th Mar, Fylde D18

All are welcome to attend.

FORGE is delighted to announce a talk by our upcoming internal speaker: Luke Harding (LAEL). Details of his talk are below:

TITLE
Misleading silence under the Australian Consumer Law: Perspectives from linguistics

ABSTRACT
This talk considers the phenomenon of “misleading silence” as it is currently applied in a particular area of private law in the Australian legal system: section 18 (s 18) of the Australian Consumer Law (ACL). Misleading silence is of theoretical and practical interest in the case of s 18 as, according to that provision, “a person must not, in trade or commerce, engage in conduct that is misleading or deceptive or is likely to mislead or deceive”. Yet the treatment of misleading silence is under-examined in academic scholarship around s 18, particularly with respect to linguistic perspectives on silence and their implications for understanding the operation of s 18. In this talk, I will first illustrate how misleading silence has been interpreted in cases decided under s 18. Second, I will discuss two distinctions that have figured as organising ideas in interpreting misleading silence under s 18, providing a critique from a linguistic perspective on silence. Finally, I will suggest some ways in which a consideration of misleading silence in s 18 cases opens up interesting lines of enquiry for research at the intersection of linguistics and the law.

TIME & PLACE
1100-1200, Thu 27^th Feb, County South D72

All are welcome to attend.

Please note that due to the upcoming strike action, Ryan Boyd’s talk has been cancelled. We will reschedule later this or early next academic year.

Please note that due to upcoming strike action, Ryan Boyd’s talk has been rescheduled. You can see the updated date, time, and room here.

Please note that Danuta Kot’s talk has been cancelled. We will hopefully reschedule this within this academic year.

FORGE is delighted to announce a talk by our upcoming internal speaker: Ryan Boyd (Psychology). Details of his talk are below:

TITLE
Predatory Parlance: Understanding the Social Psychology of Online Sexual Predators

ABSTRACT
Internet sex stings have become popular throughout the US as a way to catch potential child predators before they have the  opportunity to victimize actual children. Customarily, online conversations between undercover agents and accused offenders are submitted as evidence in the prosecution of these cases. These chats may be used by prosecutors to demonstrate several aspects of the accused’s psychological profile, such as grooming strategies, the extent to which offenders engaged in rapport building or sexual conversations, and the degree to which offenders controlled/dominated the conversations with their online victims. Using psychologically-grounded language analysis methods across two studies, we analyze transcripts in order to gain a glimpse into the motives, intentions, and other psychological processes of the accused as well as the conduct of undercover agents.

TIME & PLACE
1100-1200, Thu 12^th Mar, County South D72

All are welcome to attend.