Polling for Common Ground on bias against certain accents finds that people think that those with Scouse and Brummie accents are the most likely to experience bias in their day to day lives.
Dominic Watt
@domwatt.bsky.social
Senior Forensic Consultant, J P French International / Honorary Professor of Linguistics, University of York, UK. Now based in Berlin. Rides bikes and runs a bit.
My colleague Prof. Peter French will feature in the upcoming BBC1 series 'Expert Witness', sharing insights into the critical role of forensic voice evidence in solving high-profile criminal cases. Full series available on July 6th, BBC iPlayer. Daily broadcasts: Mon - Fri, 10:45, BBC1 TV.
Today is Social Mobility Day (socialmobilityday.com) and I'm down in London where I'll be giving a talk on "Accent Bias and Social Mobility" for a law firm. A reminder of the headlines:
Social Mobility Day
Social Mobility Awareness Day is about actively raising awareness of social mobility and the organisations that are committed to bringing about impactful change.
socialmobilityday.com
#ForensicLinguistics course in/for #German at HHU, Dusseldorf, 28 - 29 September 3926.
Grundlagen der Forensischen Linguistik – Diversität in der Linguistik e.V.
div-ling.org
The FACTOR Forensic Linguistics and Speech Science Summer School (@factor-lu.bsky.social) is back on June 11th & 12th, and we're going online this year! Two days of language, speech, and AI, all on the theme of protection, privacy, and proactive synthesis: wp.lancs.ac.uk/factor/summe...
SS2026
Language, Speech, and AI: An Online Forensics Summer School Welcome to the annual FACTOR Summer School, running 0930-1445 on both Thu 11th and Fri 12th June 2026. Each even year (2026, 2028, etc.) …
wp.lancs.ac.uk
Delighted to announce this book is finally being published! Over 3 years in the production. I've written Chapter 3 - Ethics and Professional Conduct Oversight in Forensic Linguistic Expert Evidence. #ForensicLinguistics #Ethics #ExpertEvidence
The Routledge Handbook of Ethics in Forensic Linguistics
The Routledge Handbook of Ethics in Forensic Linguistics is the first comprehensive reference work to explore the ethical dimensions of forensic language analysis across a range of applied and academi...
routledge.com
Since January 2022, we (me, 93% Club & SS) have been working a project that tackles accent bias in Higher Education, focusing on the 'elite' institution where we're based. Today, we're launching the project website which brings together all our work: accentbias.ed.ac.uk
Thrilled that The Oxford Handbook of Language and Prejudice, published barely a month ago, has won its first award: Curtin University's "Publication of the Year"! 🏆 (Co-editor Sender Dovchin works at Curtin.) 🎉 Get yours here 😉: global.oup.com/academic/pro...
global.oup.com
The Oxford Handbook of Language & Prejudice, edited by Jane Setter, Sender Dovchin, and yours truly, rearticulates and expands upon the connections between language and prejudice. It is available for pre-order, so please ask your university or local library to order a copy: shorturl.at/gDhJA
I gave a keynote on accent bias and social mobility at the ABI (Assoc. of British Insurers) last week. Alongside my keynote, they invited me to write a blog post on our work which you can now read below: www.abi.org.uk/news/blog-ar...
Accent bias as a barrier to social mobility | ABI
abi.org.uk
“Native English authenticity can sometimes lead to an automatic sense of trust.” www.theguardian.com/technology/2...
How ‘native English’ Scattered Spider group linked to M&S attack operate
Cybersecurity expert says group are ‘unusual but potently threatening’ coalition of ransomware hackers
theguardian.com
Interesting stuff! And one of the papers that we're going to be talking about on our course in June... BBC News - Five year olds 'link accents with intelligence' - BBC News www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Five year olds 'link accents with intelligence'
A study finds young children think someone with a
bbc.co.uk
We're published!!! 🎉 Dimensions of Linguistic Variation academic.oup.com/book/59713 Chris Cieri's work at the LDC led him to ask: what do we need to make linguistic corpora comparable? These 30 chapters are the start of an answer. Rest well, Chris. We did it. www.ldc.upenn.edu/christopher-...
Dimensions of Linguistic Variation
Abstract. This book investigates evidence for the myriad factors which influence language variation and change, and considers how to best account for these
academic.oup.com
Are Scottish accents really more aggressive? A linguist explains theconversation.com/are-scottish...
Are Scottish accents really more aggressive? A linguist explains
The way we feel about an accent tells us less about its integral properties and much more about the stereotypes of the people who speak it.
theconversation.com
A fully funded PhD opportunity at Nottingham Trent University: "Human-Interpretable and Explainable Artificial Intelligence for Tackling Online Language Crimes" To start in September/October 2025. Closing date for applications is Friday 14 February 2025. Full details of the project and how to apply:
Human-Interpretable and Explainable Artificial Intelligence for Tackling Online Language Crimes
A fully funded PhD studentship opportunity, open for both UK and International applicants
ntu.ac.uk