Masterclasses in transcription for forensic and other purposes – join us in March

The Hub is known for its pioneering work in forensic transcription – but transcripts are used in many other sectors of society. As well, multiple branches of linguistic science use transcripts as the basis of research (e.g. phonetics, conversation and discourse analysis, language description and documentation, sociolinguistics, psycholinguistics – not to mention other branches of forensic linguistics).

But what exactly is a transcript? What factors do we have to consider to be sure our transcripts are reliable and suitable for their intended purposes? It has become clear that forensic transcription is just one area where questions like these arise.

This series of four masterclasses is an opportunity to consider the practice and theory of transcription from a broad perspective. And yes – we will get on to recent developments in automatic transcription.

If you have a background in any form of transcription – please consider joining us. Bring your examples, questions, ideas – and your enquiring mind! Experience in transcribing varieties other than standard English is particularly welcome.

Register now

To facilitate discussion, numbers are limited to 12 in person and 6 online. Students are welcome but should have at least 3rd year linguistics and/or experience in using transcripts.

Dates: Wednesdays in March 5-7pm (March 1, 8, 15, 22) – followed by social dinner.
Venue: Babel Building, University of Melbourne Parkville campus (room to be announced).
To register: email Dr. Debbie Loakes asap with a brief indication of your background (contact details available here).

Suggested reading

Fraser, H. (2022) A framework for deciding how to create and evaluate transcripts for forensic and other purposes Frontiers in Communication Vol. 7, Article No. 898410.

This is a systematic review of research findings about transcription, intended as a starting point for interdisciplinary discussion.

Visitors during Hub Month

These masterclasses are part of “Hub month”, as we welcome our two visitors in March. We have Lauren Harrington joining us as an intern from The University of York, and Eleanor Kettle joining as a Hub PhD student. Ben Gibb-Reid, also from The University of York, will be in Melbourne during Hub month too.

Stay tuned for further info about

• a talk by Ben at The University of Melbourne on March 10 titled What’s in a word? The potential of word-based phonetic variation to aid the task of forensic voice comparison (3.15pm);
• our talk at Monash University on March 21 (11am-12.30pm);
• a talk by Lauren Harrington at The University of Melbourne on March 24 (3.15pm); and
• a Linguistics in the Pub event on March 28 (6pm-8pm).