Being able to have such engaging discussions aids in providing presenters with valuable feedback (which was especially beneficial for me as I was presenting preliminary findings from my dissertation) and, as I witnessed on multiple occasions, creates opportunities for future collaborations. ![]() This ensured that findings were accurately conveyed and allowed for meaningful discussions from individuals with different backgrounds and perspectives. ![]() Ainsworth made defamation law incredibly entertaining!). Thankfully, this conference was definitely impactful! Despite attending talks that I have little background knowledge of, I was constantly impressed at how accessible presenters made their talks (Exhibit A: Dr. It became clear that without being transparent in what we’re doing, how we’re doing it, and why we’re doing it, the end result (our findings) may have little impact on the audience (likewise, as Professor Neto also pointed out, a lack of transparency may obscure access to justice). Who we’re communicating our findings to, and how, is something that I considered as I attended other talks throughout the next three days of conference activities. Unfortunately, as much as I like to think that everyone should be as excited about forensic linguistics as I am, not everyone is. Picornell’s talk reminds us to thoroughly consider the (often multiple and variable) audiences who we are presenting our analyses to. Often, consulting experts (especially those who have been foundational in developing the field into what it is today) begin consulting without training in being an expert witness, so to be able to learn from these experiences is not only a privilege but should also be encouraged to help further advance the field (also see the expert witness training supported by the IAFLL). It also fosters a mentorship-like environment in which students, emerging scholars, and early-career forensic linguistic practitioners can learn first-hand about the realities of expert consulting. That is, in being transparent in our experiences, it helps improve the rigour of our methods and approaches. I find that in sharing such experiences, it allows us to think about how methods are applied and what types of research questions we can ask (and try to answer), and it helps identify research gaps. Many other talks (e.g., Professor Coulthard’s plenary and the session titled ‘forensic linguistics casework’) also discussed experiences of consulting forensic linguists. This insight is important for (at least) two reasons: First, it speaks to the importance of sharing experiences of being a practicing forensic linguist and being transparent in these experiences for others to learn from. Picornell’s presidential address highlighted the role that we, as forensic linguists consulting on cases, have in explaining our methods and findings not only to triers of fact, but also to lawyers who engage our services as it is the lawyers who are initially responsible for disclosing experts and contextualizing our research question(s) and findings as relevant to the case at hand. The conference theme focused on rigour and transparency in forensic linguistics, and this was apparent across the various conference activities. ![]() Isabel Picornell, plenaries by Professor Janet Ainsworth, Professor Karen McAuliffe, Professor Luísa Neto, Professor Ricardo Jorge Dinis-Oliveira, and Professor Malcolm Coulthard, 22 parallel sessions with talks on a wide array of forensic and legal linguistic topics, a poster session, various social events, delicious food and drinks, and of course, a wonderful group of forensic and legal linguists! The conference consisted of a pre-conference workshop on Aston’s FoLD, a presidential address by IAFLL President Dr. As the first IAFLL in-person event since 2019, the conference attracted delegates from around the world, and indeed, it was an exciting time to reunite with the IAFLL community face-to-face. On July 18-21, 2022 the 4 th European Conference of the IAFLL was hosted by the Faculty of Arts and Humanities at the University of Porto, in Porto, Portugal. A big thank you to Dakota Wing for offering these reflections the 4th European Conference of the IAFLL, Porto 18-21 July 2022.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |