Integrating Sociophonetic Data with Forensic Frameworks

Convenor

Katelyn Taylor

Katelyn Taylor is a Third year PhD student in Theoretical and Applied Linguistics at the University of Cambridge, with a focus on sociophonetics and forensic phonetics. Katelyn’s work explores how listeners perceive and judge gender diverse speakers, and the implications this may have in forensic casework, using acoustic analysis and perceptual studies to gain a better understanding of how our voices and identities intersect in everyday and forensic contexts.

Description

This workshop bridges digital humanities and linguistic research through hands-on exploration of speech analysis tools. Participants will be introduced to digital platforms such as Praat, Audacity, Forced Alignment, and AI‑based transcription systems, learning how these can be used to visualize and interpret speech data. Together, we’ll discuss how digital methods can highlight linguistic patterns and support reproducible research in sociophonetics and forensic phonetics. The session will combine conceptual discussion with guided practice, allowing participants to experiment with new techniques regardless of prior experience.

Is any equipment or Software required?

Participants will need to bring their own laptop. Praat, Audacity, and Anaconda (for Forced Alignment) are all free to use, but may need downloading in advance.

Target Audience

Our CDH Methods workshops have limited places and are prioritised for students and staff at the University of Cambridge. However, if space is available, we welcome all participants who want to learn and apply digital methods and use digital tools in their research.

This session may be of particular interest to:

PhD students in the Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences

Early Career Researchers in the Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences

Contact CDH

If you have specific accessibility needs for this event, please get in touch. We will do our best to accommodate any requests, however please note that the building is grade 2 listed and has 4 steps into the building so unfortunately wheelchair access is not available.

This workshop is part of our Methods Fellowship programme, which develops and delivers innovative teaching in digital methods. You can read more about the programme here (https://www.cdh.cam.ac.uk/methods/methods-fellowships-2026-27/)and view the complete series of workshops here (https://www.cdh.cam.ac.uk/events/?type=1813&range=upcoming).

Description supplied by the event organiser.