Talks

Invited talks

  • Wright, D. (2023) The cross-examination of vulnerable witnesses in England and Wales: reflections and realities. Aston Institute for Forensic Linguistics, Aston University, 27 April 2023.
    Jackson, J., Cooper, D., Saunders, C. and Wright, D. (2023) Mapping the changing face of cross-examination in criminal trials. No.1 High Pavement Chambers Lecture. National Justice Museum, Nottingham. 21 March 2023.
  • Wright, D. (2023) Corpus approaches to forensic linguistics: the benefit and challenges of corpora in investigative and legal language analysis. Xi’an Jiaotong University, China. 10 February 2023.
  • Wright, D. (2022) Corpora and the evolution of forensic linguistics. Keynote at ‘Corpus Linguistics: the past, the present and the potential’. British Association for Applied Linguistics (BAAL) Corpus Linguistics Special Interest Group Symposium. University of Leeds, 13 May 2022
  • Wright, D. (2021). On the use of corpora in forensic linguistics: traditions and trends. Keynote at ‘Corpora in Applied Linguistics: Broadening the Agenda’. British Association for Applied Linguistics (BAAL) and Cambridge University Press seminar, Aston University, Birmingham, UK. 15-16 April 2021.
  • Wright, D. (2020). The use of corpora in many types of forensic linguistic analysis is becoming increasingly commonplace”: A decade on from Cotterill (2010). Institute for Forensic Linguisitcs, Aston University, 10 December 2020.
  • Wright, D. (2020). Persuasion as incitement?: patterns of advice in a Pick-Up-Artist community of practice. Influence, Manipulation, and Seduction – Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Persuasive Language symposium, University of Basel, Switzerland, 22-23 November 2020.
  • Wright, D. (2020) Forensic linguistics: responding to challenges in language and law. University of Santiago, Chile, 21 October 2020.
  • Wright, D. (2020) Identifying authors and idiolects using forensic linguistics. University of Mosul, Iraq, 7 July 2020.
  • Wright, D. (2019). Investigating the harassment of children in public places: How important is the linguistics? Linguistics at Huddersfield Research Group. University of Huddersfield, 2nd October 2019.
  • Wright, D. (2019).“You can’t sit with us”: the value of non-forensic data in forensic linguistics. Plenary at The Germanic Society for Forensic Linguistics (GSFL) Roundtable in Forensic Linguistics and Forensic Phonetics. University of Graz, Austria, September 5–8, 2019.
  • Wright, D. (2019) “She kept saying no but that didn’t stop me”: Discourses of resistance in an online Pick-Up Artist forum. Northumbria University, Newcastle, 4th April 2019.
  • Wright, D. (2019). The role of the British press in inciting hate crimes against non-native English speakers in the UK. The Forensic Linguistics Research Group (FORGE), Lancaster University, 27 February 2019.
  • Wright, D. (2018). “Two guys asked me ‘how old are you babe?’”: Linguistic, psychological and legal perspectives on the street harassment of children. Paper to be presented at Manchester Metropolitan University, 19th June 2018.
  • ​Wright, D. (2017). Population data in forensic author identification. Paper presented at ‘Advancing Advocacy: Challenges ahead in criminal evidence and procedure’, Nottingham Law School, Nottingham Trent University, 23 June 2017. 
  • Wright, D. (2016) Linguistic habits and idiolect: a collocational approach to forensic author identification. Paper presented at the Linguistics research seminar series at the University of Huddersfield, 3 February 2016.
  • Wright, D. (2015) N-gram textbites and author identification: A corpus approach to a forensic problem. Paper presented at the Corpus Linguistics Network talk series at the University of Nottingham, 9 December 2015.
  • Wright, D. (2014) Eventually the twain shall meet: Corpus linguistics and forensic linguistics. Paper presented at the University of Portsmouth, 6 March 2013.
  • Wright, D. (2013) A corpus-based genre-focused approach to identifying idiolect: Implications for forensic authorship analysis. Centre for Forensic Linguistics, Aston University, Birmingham, 13 March 2013.
  • Wright, D. (2013) Investigating idiolect through genre conventions: An email case study. Newman UniversityEnglish Seminar Series. Birmingham, 20 February 2013.
  • Wright, D. and Gomez, A. (2012) Openings, closings, polite requests and address forms in emails of Enron traders and lawyers. Paper presented at the 1st Inter-university PhD Seminar on Forensic Linguistics (University of Leeds & IULA/Universitat Pompeu Fabra), Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona, Spain. March 2012.
  • Johnson, A., Wright, D. and Gomez, A. (2011) Authorship in Forensic Linguistics. Lecture given at Cardiff University, 23 November 2011.​

Peer-reviewed conference papers

2022

  • Giménez, R., Queralt, S. and Wright, D. (2022) The representation(s) of forensic linguistics in the media: reflections from the community. 4th European Conference of the International Association for Forensic and Legal Linguistics (IAFLL). University of Porto, 18-21 July 2022.
  • Harrington, L., Love, R. and Wright, D. (2022) Analysing the performance of automated transcription tools for covert audio recordings. 30th International Association for Forensic Phonetics and Acoustics (IAFPA) Annual Conference. Charles University, Prague, 10-13 July 2022.
  • Paver, A., Braber, N and Wright, D. (2022) Forensic implications of listener judgements on speaker pitch and rate of articulation. British Association of Academic Phoneticians (BAAP) Colloquium. University of York, 4 April 2022.

2021

  • Williams, J and Wright, D. (2021) Ambiguity, transitivity and responsibility in the UK daily Coronavirus briefings. Paper presented at The 1st International Online Systemic Functional Linguistics Interest Group (SFLIG) Conference, 16-19 November 2021
  • Wright, D. (2021) Positioning and responsibility in the Opening Statements of the Grenfell Tower Inquiry: a corpus-assisted analysis. Paper presented at the 15th International Association of Forensic Linguistics conference. Aston University, 13-15 September.
  • Braber, N., Paver, A. and Wright, D. (2021) To what extent do social judgements of accents affect voice judgements? Paper presented at BAAL 2021 conference, Northumbria University (online), 9-11 September 2021.
  • Paver, A., Braber, N. and Wright, D. (2021) Examining social and behavioural judgements of British English accents. Paper presented at the 13th UKLVC Conference (online). University of Glasgow, 8-10 September 2021.
  • Paver, A., Wright, D. and Braber, N. (2021) Accent judgements for social traits and criminal behaviours: ratings and implications. Paper presented at the 29th International Association for Forensic Phonetics and Acoustics Annual Conference (online). University of Marburg, 22-25 August 2021.

2020

  • Williams, J. and Wright, D. (2020). Pronominal ambiguity and ascriptions of responsibility in the UK daily coronavirus briefings. 46th Conference of the Japan Association for English Corpus Studies (JAECS), 3-4 October 2020.
  • Williams, J. and Wright, D. (2020) “The more we restrict contact, the more we slow the spread of infection”: Ambiguity, responsibility and political action in the UK coronavirus briefings. Corpora and Discourse International Conference 2020, University of Sussex, UK, 17-19 June 2020.

2019

  • Wright, D. (2019) Discursive constructions of consent and resistance: a corpus study of a Pick Up Artist community. Paper presented at the 10th International Corpus Linguistics Conference (CL2019). Cardiff University, 22-26 July 2019.

2018

  • Smith, H., Kelly, S., Braber, N., Robson, J. & Wright, D. (2018)  Developing a procedure for eliciting accurate, detailed, and consistent forensic voice descriptions from lay witnesses. Paper presented at British Psychological Society (BPS) Cognitive Section Annual Conference, Liverpool Hope University, 29-31 August 2018.
  • Kelly, S., Smith, H., Braber, N., Robson, J., Wright, D. (2018). “Not deep just average”: Improving the usability of lay-listener voice descriptions. Paper presented at 6th Germanic Society for Forensic Linguistics roundtable, University of York, 2-5 August 2018.
  • Smith, H., Braber, N., Robson, J., Wright, D. and Kelly, S. (2018). Developing a procedure for eliciting accurate, detailed, and consistent forensic voice descriptions from lay witnesses. Paper presented at the 27th International Association for Forensic Phonetics and Acoustics (IAFPA) conference, University of Huddersfield, 29 July-1 August 2018.
  • Wright, D. and Onyenwe, I. E. (2018). Predatory discourses and the incitement of violence against women in an online discussion forum. Paper presented at The 9th Inter-Varietal Applied Corpus Studies (IVACS) International Conference, University of Malta, 13-15 June, 2018.
  • Brookes, G. and Wright, D. (2018). This is England, speak English! A corpus-assisted critical study of language ideologies in the British Press. Paper presented at The 9th Inter-Varietal Applied Corpus Studies (IVACS) International Conference, University of Malta, 13-15 June, 2018.
  • Brookes, G. and Wright, D. (2018). Speak English or go home! A corpus-assisted critical study of English language ideology in the British press. Paper presented at The 39th ICAME Conference, Tampere, Finland, 30 May–3 June 2018.

​2017

  • Wright, D., Betts, L., Harding, R., Peart, S., and Sjolin Knight, C. (2017) Understanding street harassment of children: identifying recurrent behaviours in a corpus of young people’s accounts of harassment. Paper presented at Corpus Linguistics 2017, University of Birmingham, 24-28 July 2017.
  • Wright, D., Betts, L., Harding, R., Peart, S., and Sjolin Knight, C. (2017). Investigating children’s accounts of street harassment. Paper presented at the 13th biennial International Association of Forensic Linguists Conference, Porto, 10-14 July, 2017.
  • Harding, R., Betts, L., Wright, D., Peart, S. and Sjolin-Knight, C. (2017) Street harassment experiences of children and young people: an inter-disciplinary, child-inspired, preliminary study. Paper presented at the Annual Social Policy Association Conference 2017, Durham University, 10-12 July 2017.
  • Betts, L., Harding, R., Peart, S., Sjolin Knight, C., Wright, D., and Newbold, K. (2017) Exploring Adolescents’ Reports of Street Harassment: Determining Commonalities in Experiences and Negative Emotions. Paper presented at Society for Research in Child Development (SRCD) Biennial Meeting, Austin, Texas, USA, 6-8 April 2017.

2016

  • ​Wright, D., Johnson, A. and Woolls, D. (2016) Expecting the remarkable but finding the mundane: Unremarkable yet idiolectal ngrams as markers of authorship. Paper presented at Sociolinguistics Symposium 21, University of Murcia, Spain, 15-18 June 2016.
  • Johnson, A. and Wright, D. (2016) Business-only or business and pleasure identities? Constructing styles and stances in online email interaction. Paper presented at  Cybercrime: Language and Identity Online, Aston University, UK, 20 May 2016.

​2015

  • ​Wright, D. (2015) Testing the theory of idiolect. Paper presented at BAAL 2015 Annual Meeting. Aston University, September 2015.
  • Wright, D. (2015) Corpora in court? A case for a corpus-based approach to forensic authorship analysis. Paper presented at Corpus Linguistics Beyond Boundaries: Interdisciplinary Applications. One-day symposium, University of Nottingham, 10th July 2015.
  • Wright, D. (2015) Size isn’t everything: Rediscovering the individual in corpus-based forensic authorship attribution. Paper presented at Corpus Linguistics 2015, Lancaster University, 21-24 July 2015

​2014

  • ​Wright, D. (2014) “Idiolect and the uniqueness of encoding”: Twenty years of corpora and forensic authorship analysis. Paper presented at The Seventh Inter-Varietal Applied Corpus Studies (IVACS) International Conference, University of Newcastle, 19-21 June, 2014.
  • Johnson, A. and Wright, D. (2014) Identifying idiolect in (forensic) authorship attribution: an n-gram textbite approach. Paper presented at Sociolinguistics Symposium 20, University of Jyväskylä, Finland, 15-18 June 2014.
  • Johnson, A. and Wright, D. (2014) n-gram textbites in the Enron email corpus: Combining corpus-stylistic, computational, and case study approaches to authorship attribution. Paper presented at the Regional Conference of the International Association of Forensic Linguists (IAFL), Sfax, Tunisa, 12-14 December, 2014

​2013

  • ​Wright, D. (2013) A variationist approach to identifying idiolect for forensic linguistic purposes: An Enron email case study. Paper presented at UK Language Variation and Change Conference 9 (UKLVC), University of Sheffield, 2-4 September 2013.
  • Wright, D. (2013) Using corpora in forensic authorship analysis: Investigating idiolect in Enron emails. Paper presented at Corpus Linguistics 2013, Lancaster University, 22-26 July 2013.

2012

  • ​Wright, D. (2012) Existing and innovative techniques in authorship analysis: Evaluating and experimenting with computational approaches to ‘big data’ in the Enron Email Corpus. Paper presented at The 3rd European Conference of the International Association of Forensic Linguists, University of Porto, Portugal, 15-18 October 2012.
  • Wright, D. and Gomez, A. (2012) Forensic authorship identification in globalised digital communities of practice: the theoretical and methodological implications of a sociolinguistic approach to analysing authorship in Enron emails. Paper presented at Sociolinguistic Symposium 19, Freie Universität, Berlin, 21-24 August 2012.
  • Wright, D. (2012) Specialised corpora in forensic linguistics: Comparing Enron email corpora in the investigation of idiolect for authorship identification. Paper presented at The Sixth Inter-Varietal Applied Corpus Studies (IVACS) International Conference, Leeds Metropolitan University, 21-22 June, 2012.

2011

  • ​Wright, D. (2011) Stylistic variation within genre conventions in the Enron corpus: developing a text-sensitive methodology for authorship research. Paper presented at the 10th International Association of Forensic Linguists Conference, Aston University, 11-14 July 2011.
  • Alison, J., Woolls, D. and Wright, D. (2011) Corporate voices? Tools and methods for author analysis in a business email corpus. Paper presented at the Applied Linguistics and Professional Practice Conference, Cardiff, 23-24 June 2011.
  • Woolls, D. Johnson, A., Wright, D., Dickson, W. and Saatchi, J. (2011) Winning words: A Lexical Anatomy of the 2010 British Election Debates. Paper presented at the 12th International Pragmatics Association Conference, University of Manchester, 3-8 July 2011.

Hosted events

  •  17th International Summer School in Forensic Linguistic Analysis. Nottingham Trent University, September 2019 (9–13 September).
  • BAAL/Routledge Research Development Workshop 2016 ‘Language and identity in law and evidence’. Hosted at Nottingham Trent University, 19 September 2016. Co-organised with Dr Natalie Braber. Funded by The British Association for Applied Linguistics and Routledge.
  • ‘Sociolinguistics in forensic contexts: the language and the law’. Hosted at Nottingham Trent University, 16 November 2015. Co-organised with Dr Natalie Braber. Funded by the British Association for Applied Linguistics.

​Public Engagement and Widening Participation

​Based on the research on the Yorkshire dialect(s) undertaken for my MA thesis, I have given talks at two events that have aimed to translate this research to the local community:

  • ​Wright, D. (2013) Writing the Yorkshire accents: Spelling in Yorkshire dialect writing from the 1950s to now. Talk given at ‘Yorkshire Day’ event held at Headingley Library, Leeds, August 2013.
  • Wright, D. (2012) ‘There’s more’n just one dialect i’ Yorkshur’: the accuracy and motivations of accent representation in Yorkshire dialect literature. Paper presented at Meeting of the Yorkshire Dialect Society. University of Leeds. September 2012