Susan Ehrlich
Canadian linguist From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Canadian linguist From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Susan Lynn Ehrlich is a Canadian linguist known for her work in both language and gender, language and the law, and the intersections between them. She studies language, gender and the law, with a focus on consent and coercion in rape trials.[1]
Susan Ehrlich | |
|---|---|
| Academic background | |
| Alma mater | |
| Academic work | |
| Discipline | Linguist |
| Sub-discipline | Discourse analysis |
| Institutions | York University |
| Main interests | Language and gender, forensic linguistics |
Ehrlich received an Honours Bachelor of Arts in English from York University, and both a master's degree and a Ph.D. in linguistics from the University of Toronto. Her PhD was awarded in 1986, for a dissertation entitled: A Linguistic Analysis of Point of View in Fiction.[2] Between 1983 and 1986 she held lecturer positions at the University of Toronto, Brock University, and York University.
In 1986, she joined York University's Department of Languages Literatures and Linguistics as a sessional faculty member. Between 1988 and 1990 she held this same position on a full-time basis as an assistant professor. In 1990, she became an associate professor at York University and obtained full professorship in 1999.
Ehrlich has served as a visiting scholar at the University of California at Berkeley's linguistics department, between January and May 1992; a visiting professor at the Netherlands Graduate School of Linguistics Summer Institute (LOT), in June 1997; and a visiting professor at the Summer School in Sociolinguistics at the University of Edinburgh, in June 2010.
Ehrlich was an area editor for the International Encyclopedia of Human Sexuality[1] in 2015 and has served as a member of the editorial board for Gender and Language[3] since 2005 and Discourse & Society[4] since 1999. Since 2020 she has been the co-editor of Language in Society with Tommaso Milani.[5] She served as a member of the executive committee of the Social and Political Concerns Committee for the Linguistic Society of America between the years of 2002–2004 and 2008–2009 and chaired the committee between 2009–2010. Additionally, she served as the secretary for the executive committee of the International Gender and Language Association, between 2005–2006.
Between 1996 and 2004 she served as the linguistics representative for the Canadian Federation for the Humanities, Aid to Scholarly Publication Programme. She has also served as an expert witness for the Canadian Human Rights Commission in 1992, 1993, and 1996, as well as for EGAL (Equality for Gays and Lesbians) in 2001.
Much of Ehrlich's recent work utilizes feminist discourse analysis to deconstruct the language of rape, sexual harassment, and sexual assault, often in the legal system. Her work seeks to identify the underlying prejudices within the language of the legal system, particularly in cases of sexual assault and sexual harassment where linguistic evidence is often the only available evidence and serves to not only describe events, but build or destroy the character of the perpetrator and victim.[6]
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