University of North Texas 
Topic: Forensic Linguistics Applications to Intelligence, Law Enforcement, Counterterrorism
and Threat Assessment
Speaker: Dr. Robert A. Leonard, Professor of Linguistics, Hofstra University
Date: April 22, 2025 from 12:30 p.m. to 1:30 p.m. (CST)
Location:
- In-person: General Academic Building, Room 317
- Online: Register via Zoom
Abstract: “Forensic Linguistics Applications to Intelligence, Law Enforcement, Counterterrorism
and Threat Assessment, and the one-week FBI intensive training courses now taught
at Hofstra University.”
Leonard will share his story of being recruited by the FBI BAU to Quantico after the
success of his first murder case. He will discuss authorship analysis, demographic
linguistic profiling, semantic pragmatic approaches to cases including false confessions,
the recent Forensic Linguistics Justice Project Case of Texan Melissa Lucio, and
the Beverly Hills bomb case.
Bio: The New Yorker magazine calls Leonard “One of the foremost language detectives in the country.”
Leonard’s clients include the FBI Behavioral Analysis Unit, Joint Terrorism Task Forces, British Secret Intelligence Service and MI-5, NYPD Detective Bureau Homicide Investigators Training, NYPD Hate Crimes Task Force, Apple, Facebook, and the Prime Minister of Canada. He serves as Senior Consultant to the US Office of the Director of National Intelligence’s Advanced Research “Linguistic Fingerprint” project.
Leonard’s testimony was pivotal in investigating and prosecuting many serious crime cases, including international corporate investigations, the JonBenet Ramsey murder case, death threats to judges and members of the US Congress, the triple homicide of the Coleman family in Illinois and the Facebook murders in Tennessee.
At Hofstra, he heads the Graduate Program in Forensic Linguistics, the Institute for Forensic Linguistics, Threat Assessment and Strategic Analysis, and the Capital Case Justice Project, where students and faculty reanalyze language evidence crucial to a person’s conviction and sentence of death.
TIME magazine deemed Leonard (no kidding) the second smartest rock star in history, behind Brian May, guitarist of Queen, who is an Astrophysicist. (Leonard thinks this is because TIME thinks “Astrophysicist” sounds smarter than “Forensic Linguist.”)
Leonard received a B.A. from Columbia College (with honors, elected to PBK), and an M.A., M.Phil., and Ph.D. in linguistics from Columbia Graduate School, where he was a Faculty Fellow. He received a Fulbright Fellowship for his dissertation research overseas.