David Wright

Role

David Wright is a forensic and legal linguist and Associate Professor in Linguistics at NTU. He works in the Nottingham Institute for Languages and Intercultural Communication (NILIC). He is co-lead of the Language, Identities and Institutions Research Group within the School's Centre for Research in Literature Linguistics and Culture and his research primarily aligns with NTU's Safety and Sustainability research theme. He is REF Unit of Assessment Co-ordinator for Unit D27 - English Language and Literature.

His research applies methods of corpus linguistics and discourse analysis in forensic and legal contexts and aims to help improve the delivery of justice using language analysis. His research spans across a range of intersections between language and the law and justice, including corpus approaches to analysing discourse in forensic and legal contexts, forensic authorship analysis, the language of cross-examination in court and the use of voice identification evidence. He regularly publishes in international journals and presents at international conferences, including invited talks in Austria, Chile, China, Ireland, Iraq, Spain, Switzerland and throughout the UK. He is on the editorial board of The International Journal for Speech, Language and the Law and is series editor of Bloomsbury Advances in Forensic and Legal Linguistics.

He teaches on a range of undergraduate Linguistics modules and supervises postgraduate research students. He leads and teaches on modules at all levels of the BA English Language and Linguistics degree and Joint Honours Linguistics degrees:

• LING10523 Language, Society and Culture (Module Leader)
• LING20123 Language and Big Data (Module Leader)
• LING23123 Problems of Language
• LING30423 Forensic Linguistics (Module Leader)
• LING30424 Ecolinguistics (Module Leader)
• LING30023 Major Project in Linguistics (Dissertation).

He  is currently supervising four PhD students: Marwa Mustafa, Natasha Jefferson, Katherine King and Yulila Baturova. His former PhD students include: Dr Tara Coltman-Patel, Dr Peter Lee, Dr Charlotte Kennedy. He is happy to receive PhD applications in any area of forensic linguistics, legal linguistics, corpus linguistics, or discourse analysis.

David's personal website is at: https://david-wright.net/

Career overview

Dr Wright joined Nottingham Trent University as a lecturer in linguistics in September 2014, having completed his BA, MA and PhD at the University of Leeds.

During his time at NTU, his teaching has been recognised by a number of awards and nominations:

• 2019-20  Won NTSU award for Outstanding Teaching in Arts and Humanities
• 2018-19  Shortlisted for NTSU award for Outstanding Teaching in Arts and Humanities
• 2016-17  Won NTU Vice-Chancellor’s Teaching Award
• 2016-17  Won NTU Vice-Chancellor’s Outstanding Teacher Award
• 2015-16  Shortlisted for NTSU award for Outstanding Teaching in Arts and Humanities.

For the 2021-22 academic year, David was one of 12 NTU researchers selected for the first year of the NTU Vice-Chancellor's Future Research Leader's Programme.

External activity

External examining

David has acted as External Examiner of PhD theses in forensic linguistics, corpus linguistics and discourse analysis. He is currently serving as External Examiner at the University of Nottingham (Nottingham, Ningbo and Malaysia campuses) and the Open University. Before that, he was External Examiner at Oxford Brookes University (2016-2020)

Editorial positions

David has held the following editorial roles:

• Series founding editor: Bloomsbury Advances in Forensic and Legal Linguistics (Bloomsbury)
• Special issue editor: ‘Corpus approaches to legal genres’ for the International Journal of Corpus Linguistics
• Special issue editor: ‘Corpus linguistic approaches to tackling online crime’ for Applied Corpus Linguistics
• Special issue editor: ‘Forensic and Legal Linguistics’ for the International Journal for the Semiotics of Law (with Dr Isabel Picornell, QEDForensics), published in February 2024, vol. 37(2)
• Section Co-Editor (Corpus Linguistics), International Encyclopaedia of Language and Linguistics (3^rd edn)(Elsevier, March 2021 – present)
• Reviews Editor Language and Law/Linguagem e Direito (June 2016 – July 2023)

He is currently on the editorial or advisory board for:

• The International Journal of Speech, Language and the Law
• International Journal of Forensic and Legal Linguistics
• Journal of Indonesian Community for Forensic Linguistics
• The Journal of Adab Al-Rafidain
• Critical Approaches to Discourse Analysis across Disciplines (CADAAD)

Peer-reviewing

• David is a member of the peer review college of the Economic and Social  Research Council (ESRC)
• He has reviewed research grant applications for the ESRC, The British Academy, The Leverhulme Trust, The Nuffield Foundation and The Austrian Science Fund (FWF).
• David has reviewed articles for journals including Applied Corpus Linguistics, Applied Linguistics,Applied Linguistics and Professional Practice, Corpora, Critical Discourse Studies, Digital Scholarship in the Humanities, English Today, Frontiers in Communication, International Journal for the Semiotics of Law, International Journal of Corpus Linguistics, International Journal of Evidence and Proof, International Journal of Speech Language and the Law, Journal of Corpora and Discourse Studies, Journal of Forensic and Legal Linguistics, Journal of Pragmatics, Language and Law/Linguagem e Direito, Language and Literature, Language in Society, Languages
• Reviewed book/series proposals or manuscripts for Bloomsbury, Cambridge University Press, Palgrave, Polity Press and Routledge.

Professional memberships

• International Association of Forensic and Legal Linguistics (IAFLL)
• International Association of Applied Linguistics (AILA)
• British Association for Applied Linguistics (BAAL)
• Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (HEA)

Sponsors and collaborators

Funding

• 2025-2026: Principle Investigator. 'Identifying the language of AI-generated phishing campaigns: a linguistic approach to a rapidly emerging threat' (£77,732)
• 2020-2023: Co-Investigator - Nuffield Foundation. ‘Mapping the Changing Face of Cross-Examination in Criminal Trials’ (£328,631).
• 2019-2022: Co-Investigator - Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC). ‘Improving Voice Identification Procedures’ (IVIP) (£872,120).
• 2017-18: Principal Investigator - BA/Leverhulme Small Research Grant. ‘The incitement of violent offences against women in online discussion forums’ (£9,721)
• 2017-18: Co-Investigator - NTU Safety and Security Fund. ‘Methods of assessing the accuracy of accent judgements by lay listeners’. (£13,282).
• 2017: £877 from ESRC to hold ‘Street Harassment of School Students: awareness and risk’ event as part of ESRC Festival of Social Science 2017(Co-applicant).
• 2016: £1,500 from BAAL and Routledge Research Development Workshop fund to hold ‘Language and identity in Law and Evidence’ event at NTU.
• 2016: £19,851 from NTU Health and Wellbeing Proof of Concept Fund for project entitled ‘TASC11to16' (Taking A Stand for Change for secondary school children aged eleven to sixteen years), an interdisciplinary project across linguistics, psychology, law, education and social work (Co-investigator).
• 2011–2014: £51,966 Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) Doctoral Studentship.
• 2010–2011: £12,956 Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) Research Preparation Master’s Studentship.