Susan Ehrlich

Susan Ehrlich is a Canadian linguist known for her work in both Language & Gender and Language & the Law. Her research is situated at the intersection of language, gender and the law, with a focus on consent and coercion in rape trials.

Ehrlich received an Honours B.A. in English from York University, and both an M.A. and a Ph.D. in Linguistics from the University of Toronto. In the years between 1983 and 1986 she held lecturer positions at various universities, including 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 assistant professor. Between 1988 and 1990 she held this same position on a full-time basis. In 1990 she became an assistant professor at York University and obtained a full professorship in 1999.

Ehrlich has held multiple visiting scholar position, including: a visiting scholar position in the University of California at Berkeley's linguistics department, between January and May 1992; a visiting professor position at the Netherlands Graduate School of Linguistics Summer Institute (LOT), in June 1997; and a visiting professor position at the Summer School in Sociolinguistics at the University of Edinburgh, in June 2010.

Ehrlich currently serves as a member of the editorial board for Gender and Language, since 2005, and Discourse & Society, since 1999. She has 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. Additionally, she has 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.

Selected Publications

Books

(2001) Representing Rape: Language and Sexual Consent. London: Routledge.

(1992) with Peter Avery. Teaching American English Pronunciation. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

(1990) Point of View: A Linguistic Analysis of Literary Style. London: Routledge.

Edited Books

(in preparation) with Diana Eades and Janet Ainsworth. Coercion and Consent in the Legal Process: Linguistic and Discursive Perspectives. New York: Oxford University Press.

(2014) with Miriam Meyerhoff and Janet Holmes. The Handbook of Language and Gender, Second Edition. Oxford: Wiley Blackwell.

(2010) with Alice Freed. 'Why do you ask': The Function of Questions in Institutional Discourse. New York: Oxford University Press.

(2008) Language and Gender: Major Themes in English Studies. (a four-volume collection of articles on Language and Gender) London: Routledge.