Language and Social Justice Talk: Linguistics For Legal Purposes
Dr. John Baugh (current President of the Linguistic Society of America and Professor of Psychology, Anthropology, Education, English, Linguistics, and African and African-American Studies at Washington University in St. Louis) will present the various ways in which linguistics can be used for legal purposes, beginning with the murder case that launched the field of forensic linguistics. Housing discrimination that resulted from linguistic profiling will also be recounted, along with spectrographic evidence and experimental survey research that were employed during testimony pertaining to two separate murder trials. The linguistic foundations of a class action lawsuit, based on allegations that gave rise to a hostile work environment precedes another case where discourse analysis was utilized to prevent a single mother from losing her job and custody of her two young children. Different linguistic methods and evidence were required to help resolve each of these cases, thereby demonstrating instances where linguistics has been used to advance justice and equal opportunity under the law.