The 17th Biennial Conference of the International Association for Forensic and Legal Linguistics (IAFLL)

The 17th Biennial Conference of the International Association for Forensic and Legal Linguistics (IAFLL) was hosted by the University of the Western Cape (UWC) between June 30 and July 5, 2025. This was the first time an IAFLL biennial conference was hosted on the African continent. The conference was held under the theme of “Transformative Justice Through a Forensic and Legal Linguistics Lens,” which focused on linguistic transformation and the role forensic and legal linguists would play in achieving it. A particular focus was on gender-based violence, with one day of the conference set aside for this topic. The conference included six internationally recognised keynote speakers: the Honourable Chief Justice of the Republic of South Africa, Mandisa Maya; Dr. Jennifer Glougie; Dr. Zakeera Docrat; Professor Emmanuel Satia; Dr. Celia Brown-Blake; and Professor Tammy Gales. In addition, there were five panel discussions and 118 presentations, of which some were delivered in isiXhosa and Afrikaans, while the majority of papers were presented in English.