DUAL DEGREE BA-MA: FORENSIC LINGUISTICS Department of Comparative Literature, Languages, and Linguistics
About the Program Two degrees in just five years! Qualified undergraduate students may elect to enroll in a dual-degree program, combining their undergraduate bachelor's degree in linguistics with a master's degree in Linguistics: Forensic Linguistics. The dualdegree program can be completed in five years, including one summer session. Students who are admitted may count toward both the BA and MA degree requirements the graduate courses LING 202 (Phonetics and Phonology), LING 205 (Semantics and Pragmatics), LING 206 (Sociolinguistics), and LING 221 (Linguistic Field Methods). That equals 12 credits of graduate courses that count toward your undergraduate BA degree and also count toward your MA degree. Another excellent benefit is that our internships allow program credits at both undergraduate and graduate levels, where students can work on live cases of exoneration, false confessions, and death penalty mitigation — as well as coldcase homicides for investigators — where the language evidence is crucial.
What can I do with my degree? A degree in linguistics can prepare you for a career in a variety of different fields. Our forensic linguistics alumni have gone on to careers in, for example: Private industry/non-profits: Language analytics, victim advocacy, translation, threat prevention, cybersecurity, software development, financial services Law firms: NYC, Long Island, Brooklyn DA’s office Teaching: Secondary education, ESL, college, and full-time professors Freelance: Blog/magazine writing, editing, transcription services Government/Law Enforcement: FBI, CIA, Federal Dept of Corrections, Dept of Justice, Dept of Homeland Security Intelligence, County Sheriff’s Offices, NYPD
Requirements Students may apply as: •
an incoming first-year Hofstra undergraduate or
•
a current undergraduate at Hofstra before completing 92 credits of coursework.
Contact a linguistics advisor for specific program requirements.
Contact Us For information on any of our linguistics programs — the dualdegree BA-MA, major or minor in Linguistics, MA in Linguistics: Forensic Linguistics, or NEW joint JD-MA — please visit: www.Hofstra.edu/linguistics or email us at: forensiclinguistics@Hofstra.edu
Instructors Robert Leonard, Ph.D. Tammy Gales, Ph.D. Gregory Kershner, Ph.D. Josef Fioretta, M.A. Marlon Hurt, M.A. Juliane Ford, M.A.
One-week Intensives by: James R. Fitzgerald, M.S., FBI ret. Tanya Karoli Christensen, Ph.D.
Fall 2018 Intensive Course in Forensic Linguistics