Dr Laura Smith-Khan during her keynote at InDialog (Image credit: Dries Cavents, UGhent) Editor's Note: Asylum seekers in countries of the Global North need to communicate a credible fear of…
(Image credit: Eurekastreet) Editor's note: This article is based on a presentation delivered as part of a plenary panel, ‘Transdisciplinary Approach to Forensic Linguistics’, at the 16th Biennial Conference of the…
Image credit: Chris Montgomery via Unsplash Language plays a central role in legal settings. The way linguistic diversity is conceptualized and accommodated can affect access to justice in a myriad…
In a world where public debates about refugees and asylum seekers often focus on whether they are telling the truth, it should probably come as no surprise that government processes…
Laura and Alex getting ready for their presentation at the Humboldt Symposium This time two years ago, Alexandra Grey (my blog co-author) and I had realized that there were important…
2019 Conference of the International Association of Forensic Linguists Note: This post was co-authored with Alexandra Grey. The Biennial Conference of the International Association of Forensic Linguists (IAFL) was held…
Manus Hospital often treats refugees (Image credit: ABC News, Natalie Whiting) A growing body of literature across multiple disciplines attests to the importance of credibility in the bureaucratic processes for…
Oh, the places you'll go! Starting out Nearing the end of my undergraduate study, I was working on a small research essay and was having some trouble figuring out the…
Colours of the alphabet February 21 is International Mother Language Day and serves as an opportunity to discuss and promote the use of first-language medium education. The United Nations Educational,…
Multilingual advice provided by the Administrate Review Tribunal Countries in the Global North have developed increasingly sophisticated and complex processes to assess the claims of people seeking asylum. One key…
Before starting my PhD in sociolinguistics at Macquarie University, I had the great privilege of being involved in a research project that was run out of Sydney Law School at…
When people arrive in countries of the global north to seek asylum, they often bring with them little more than their stories of persecution. As receiving countries develop increasingly restrictive…
Asylum seekers in Australia face a few very public hurdles. Successive governments have used increasingly restrictive refugee policies to gain votes. Meanwhile, the media often focuses on the issue of…
Australia: The White Man's Land (Source: NLA) Australia has a proud national narrative of migration and multiculturalism. It also has an equally prevalent history of exclusionary and discriminatory migration policy.…
High Court of Australia (Source: Wikipedia) When people arrive in countries like Australia, seeking to be recognised as refugees and offered protection, it is obviously important that they are able…