Home Lecturers & Coordinators About Application
7th Forensic Linguistics Short Course
Join us in Düsseldorf from 17 to 20 March 2026 for four days of intensive training at the intersection of language, law, and digital methods. The FLsc is now a spring school, combining hands-on casework with the latest advances in forensic linguistics – from disputed meanings to authorship profiling and computational analysis.
The 7th Forensic Linguistics Short Course will take place in person at Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf, Germany. Düsseldorf, the capital of North Rhine-Westphalia, offers a vibrant mix of historic architecture, a rich cultural scene, and one of Europe’s largest Japan towns – the perfect backdrop for an international spring school.
As in previous years, we invite students (Bachelor’s and Master’s), graduate students, postdocs, and senior researchers from Linguistics and its subfields, Phonetics and Phonology, Law/Legal Studies, and related disciplines to apply. Applicants should have more than a basic background in linguistics. Ideally, participants will have either completed an undergraduate degree in a relevant subject or attended a previous edition of the FLsc. The course is taught in English.
For the first time, the FLsc will run as a spring school. This rebranding reflects both the new timing and a stronger emphasis on digital methods in forensic linguistics, alongside the hands-on, case-based approach that has always characterised the course. The 2026 programme will cover a range of topics, including the latest developments in forensic linguistics, disputed meanings and their role in legal cases, theories of idiolect and approaches to authorship analysis, stylistic and manual methods, computationally-assisted authorship analysis, and case analysis presentations in which participants apply methods to real-world material.
Application Process
Applications are open from 13 September 2025 to 13 December 2025 (midnight, GMT -12; i.e. applications remain open as long as it is 13 December anywhere in the world). Notifications of acceptance will be sent in early January 2026. Questions regarding applications can be directed to the coordinators via our contact form.
Participation Fee
The FLsc operates on a strict non-profit basis. All participation fees are used solely to cover costs such as lecturers, course rooms, catering, and website maintenance. We are currently seeking external funding; should this be secured after the payment deadline, participants will be reimbursed accordingly. Please note that the final fee may decrease, but will never increase.
- Participation fee: 450 EUR
- Payment deadline: 17 February 2026
Payment is possible only via wire transfer. If you cannot afford to pay the full fee at once, please contact the coordination team to arrange instalments.
Cancellation Policy
If you are unable to attend, you may cancel your participation free of charge until 17 February 2026. If the fee has already been paid, the full amount will be refunded. Cancellations after this date, or failure to attend without notice, require full payment of the participation fee.