Department: Aston Institute for Forensic Linguistics
Web Address: https://www.aston.ac.uk/research/forensic-linguistics

Level: PhD

Institution/Organization: Aston University

Duties: Research

Specialty Areas: Computational Linguistics; Forensic Linguistics; Pragmatics; Text/Corpus Linguistics  Language and Law

Description:

The Aston Institute for Forensic Linguistics (AIFL) is inviting applications for three fully-funded PhD scholarships commencing in September 2022 and tenable for three years.

Two of the PhD positions are in specific areas of our research detailed below. The third PhD position is on slightly different terms because of the source of funding and can be in any area of forensic linguistics/language and law.

The two directed PhD applications will attract the following bursaries:
- Fees - the bursary will cover three years of standard Aston University UK or international fees.
- Stipend - £16,000 to cover accommodation and living costs.
Conference fund of £1,000 pa to attend national or international conferences at which you will be presenting.

The successful candidates will be offered wide-ranging training opportunities from AIFL and as part of the Doctoral Training Programme at The Aston Graduate School.

For the two directed PhDs you need to respond to one of the two research area outlines below:

1. The Centre for Forensic Text Analysis (CFTA) is working to develop the theoretical underpinnings of the notion of idiolect, and to inform evidential and investigative practice in forensic authorship analysis. Our focus is on agentively construed individual variation in language. We work with very large and more limited data sets to address questions of both method validation for court proceedings and method utility in investigative work. We are currently seeking to explore two authorship attribution scenarios: (1) involving data from individuals with limited language resources and/or using restricted codes (in the sense of Bernstein), and (2) involving data from millions of authors to test the plausibility of linguistically enabled offender identification. We are also keen to examine the potential of individual pragmatic styles for authorship analysis purposes.

Applicants interested in any of these themes should contact CFTA Head, Dr Krzysztof Kredens at k.j.kredensaston.ac.uk.

2. The Centre for Language and Law (CLL) investigates language and social justice. We are currently working on projects to further understanding of: law and policy relating to regulation of private family life, aspects of the public family law system, child and adult safeguarding, safeguarding risk prediction (particularly automated systems), legal protections for vulnerable groups involved with the justice system, expert evidence, and the potential for linguistics and AI to contribute to the law. We welcome applications from any area of language and law that complements our current work, particularly in the following areas:
- Public family law, child protection and safeguarding processes; and
- Expert evidence in the family courts.

Applicants interested in any of these themes should contact CLL Head Professor Lauren Devine at l.devine@aston.ac.uk. The successful candidate will be qualified in law, linguistics or a cognate discipline.

Open PhD applications:
In addition to the two opportunities above we have a third open opportunity to research a PhD in any area of forensic linguistic/language and law at Aston, although we will be particularly interested in applications which are distinctive from the areas described for the two directed PhD studentships. Only established staff can supervise PhDs, which within AIFL comprises Prof Tim Grant, Professor Lauren Devine, Dr Krzysztof Kredens, Dr Geoffrey Stewart Morrison, Dr Tamineh Tayebi, Dr Kate Haworth, and Dr Stephen Parker. Their research interests can be found on the AIFL pages of Aston Research Explorer.

For informal enquiries about the open PhD application please contact the individual you would like to become your supervisor or, for more general enquiries, Professor Tim Grant (t.d.grant@aston.ac.uk).

Web Address for Applications: https://www.aston.ac.uk/bss/bss-business-and-social-sciences-studentships-phd

Contact Information:
Prof Tim Grant
        t.d.grant@aston.ac.uk